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Attorney General Kim Foxx described Jussie Smollett as "washed-up celebrity who lied to the cops" and informed his prosecutor's badistant that the Empire's actor was overloaded in newly published texts sent two weeks later that she "recuses herself"
In messages sent weeks after she had recused herself, Foxx had written to Joe Magats, the prosecutor to whom she had confided the case, and had seemed to compare Smollett's accusations to those made against another one. accused of celebrities, R. Kelly.
She said: "Pedophile with 4 victims, 10 counts of indictment.
"Washed celebrity who lied to the cops, 16."
She was referring to the indictment against the grand jury of 16 counts and for which Smollett was allegedly a victim of a hoax on 3 January.
Foxx continued, "In a case that may be subject to delayed prosecution, I think this is indicative of something we should look at in general terms.
"It's not because we can charge something we should do it.
"Agreed," Magats replied.
The 36-year-old case against Smollett was suddenly and unexpectedly abandoned last month by Foxx's office in dubious circumstances. Since then, issues relating to Foxx's alleged role in this decision have grown in importance.
Magats said in an interview afterwards that he still believed that Smollett was guilty. Foxx baderted that it was never his decision to have the charges waived in exchange for Smollett's $ 10,000 bail bond or the completion of his community service.
Now she has to deal with a growing number of calls to resign.
Thousands of texts and emails about the case were made public Tuesday by the state attorney's office, Kim Foxx, as criticisms of her increased.
They were handed over to the Chicago Tribune as part of a request for information.
They reveal just how much a group of employees worried about the media coverage of the case, regularly sharing press articles among themselves within a group called "Foxxhole."
Foxx is "desisted" from the case after learning that she had been exchanging SMS with the family of a member of Smollett in the days following the incident. She tried, at their request, to hand over the case to the FBI, but without success.
Other texts, revealed Tuesday night, show that staff members exchanging messages in a group called "Foxxhole" worried about the media coverage of the case.
When Smollett was arrested on February 21, prosecutors said it was "a total shock." They then accused the police department of having "leaked" to the press and shared articles that they thought came from the police
After the charges were removed, the office staff began receiving requests for responses from the press. Keira Ellis, one of the communication teams, told colleagues: "Good speed to all"
While she had announced at the time that she was recusing herself, she has since said that she understood this by a "familiar" sense rather than a "legal sense" and that it was more of a informal decision to "move away from decision making". than remove it entirely.
In messages sent two weeks before this decision, Foxx, who has since been the subject of repeated calls to give up his handling of the record, writes: "Sooo …… I I am challenged, but when people accuse us of overloading cases .. .16 relies on a clbad 4 becomes part A.
She continues: "Pedophile with 4 victims, 10 counts of accusation. Washed celebrity who lied to the cops, 16. "
Magats responds: "Yes. I can see where this can be considered excessive.
Additional messages show that Foxx answers "yes … it's not who we want to be" in response to a message from his colleague Magats saying that he will be looking closely at how we charge the cases.
Magats writes, "I'll go with Risa and Jim. With him, we can look closely at how we charge business and come up with something that covers what needs to be covered without being excessive and ultimately useless. & # 39;
It is thought that Risa is Attorney Risa Lanier, we do not know who Jim refers to.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Foxx said: "After the indictment became public, I contacted Joe to discuss the office's policy review in order to to ensure the consistency of our charges and our use of proper charging powers.
"I was elected to bring about criminal justice reform, which includes intentionality, consistency and discretion. I will continue to defend these guiding principles.
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