Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx is back from political activity after her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer, her bureau confirmed Monday.
Foxx’s husband Kelley Foxx is expected to have surgery this week, as first reported by Politico. The state’s attorney’s office confirmed that Kim Foxx will be returning from the campaign to help him recover and care for her family.
Kim Foxx is running for a second term against Republican Pat O’Brien in the November general election. She won a contested Democratic primary in March against three electorates, rising with just 50% of the vote, and is poised to win reelection in the entire Democratic province.
The news that she would return from campaign came the same day that a special prosecutor said in his report that Kim Foxx and her office committed “substantial abuse of discretion and operational failures” in handling the case against actor Jussie Smollett.
A Cook County grand jury indicted Smollett in March 2019 on 16 counts in connection with his report of a suspected racist and homophobic attack, which police claimed he stepped up against himself because he was’ dissatisfied with his salary. ‘, and then worked as an actor on “Empire.” All the charges against Smollett were dropped later that month in surprising motion the burning speculation of powerlessness in Kim Foxx’s office.
But special prosecutor Dan Webb said in his report Monday that there was no evidence to support criminal prosecutors against Kim Foxx as anyone working in the state’s attorney’s office.
Charges against Smollett were reinstated in February. He pleaded not guilty, with his lawyer in a statement at the time saying the renewed attempt at prosecution was “clearly all about politics and not justice.”
In a statement Monday, Kim Foxx’s office said the report “sets aside all implications of outside or criminal activity by the Office of State of Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) and the Chicago Police Department (CPD).” State Attorney Foxx was not involved in any of the decision-making process regarding the Jussie Smollett case and there was no external influence on that process. “
Her office added that it “categorically rejects” the characterization of the special prosecutor “from its exercises of attorney discretion and private as well as public statements such as ‘abuse of discretion’ as false statements to the public.”
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