Jussie Smollett — Prosecutor Kim Foxx Subpoenaed To Appear In Court

Jussie Smollett — Prosecutor Kim Foxx Subpoenaed To Appear In Court

The controversy isn’t over for the prosecutor in Jussie Smollett’s case. Now, the prosecutor Kim Foxx has officially been subpoenaed. Smollett was looking at 16 felony counts for allegedly lying to police about being a victim of a brutal homophobic and racial attack in Chicago. Foxx, as the city’s top prosecutor, oversaw the case and ultimately dropped charges against him.

While she was already being criticized, things worsened for her after text messages between her and the Assistant State’s Attorney for Cook County were leaked.

R.Kelly

In the texts, she called Smollett a

“washed up celeb who lied to cops.”

She also said the 16 counts against him were “excessive” and compared them to the four counts R. Kelly is facing for allegations that he sexually abused women, including minors. See the texts below.

Authorities have taken things a step further and subpoenaed Foxx with an order to appear in court before Judge Sheila O’Brien. There, she’ll have to explain the ins and outs of how she handled Smollett’s case. Foxx is said to be backing her decision to drop the charges against Smollett. She’s also reportedly open to being investigated.

As previously reported, Foxx has also taken on extra security after receiving death threats amid the fallout of the actor’s case. Foxx’s Chief-Of-Staff Jennifer Ballard-Croft confirmed the news in a statement.

“The State’s Attorney’s Office can confirm that the state’s attorney has received threats to her personal safety and security, a number of which have contained racially-charged language.”

“There have certainly been things that have been threatening in nature that have been forwarded up to our investigation bureau.”

As for Smollett, his Empire cast is standing by him. The stars of the show wrote a letter to show runners (Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier, Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment chair Dana Walden, Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn, Empire co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong,) asking them to keep him on the popular series. Check out the complete letter below:

Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire.

We understand the past months have been difficult to process—sometimes the headlines brought more confusion than clarity, yet we now have a conclusion to this ordeal. Throughout Empire’s five seasons working with Jussie and watching how he has conducted himself throughout this traumatic event, we have come to know not just the character Jussie portrays, but also truly come to know Jussie’s personal character. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is honest and above all he is filled with integrity. He is also innocent and no longer subject to legal uncertainty with the criminal charges against him having been dropped. We are confident in his lawyer’s assurance that the case was dismissed because it would not have prevailed.

Jussie has shown us on and off the set who he really is as a leader. In addition to being a caring friend and cast member who treats every crew member with love and respect, he has spent time with our families and individually supported each of us. These recent and detailed letters from The Black AIDS Institute, the Rainbow Push Coalition and the City Lights Orchestra shine a light on his commitment to true community service. Just a few months ago, Jussie partnered with the Trevor Project to provide support to their volunteer program that allows LGBTQ youth in crisis access to vital counseling services. Prior to that, he gave every cent from his sold out world tour to numerous charities. He has adopted a school in Chicago, taught songwriting to incarcerated youth at the Cook County Jail last year and bought the family of Kayden Kinckle, a six-year-old, double amputee, a wheelchair accessible van due to his school district not having a wheelchair accessible school bus. He has traveled to South Africa for service as well as to Jamaica to quietly meet about the safety of LGBTQ youth. This was all done without posturing, the need for attention or even discussion.

This is the Jussie we know.

It’s clearer every day that the extreme political climate in our country has only made our system of justice and the court of public opinion more unjust.

It is why now, more than ever, we must stand together as a family. A family is there for us in good times and bad. It can cut through the noise and confusion to understand that there is a person in the center of all this who deserves nothing more than to move forward with his life. We understand that this show is a business. And that business matters to us as well. We are confident our fans will welcome our “Jamal” back into the Empire family as enthusiastically as we will.

That is why we write today to ask you to keep Jussie on the cast so that we can all put this behind us and move forward. Thank you for taking time to hear us. It’s our hope that together we will move into our sixth season as the entire Empire family should.

SINCERELY,

Terrence Howard
Taraji P Henson
Bryshere Y. Gray
Trai Byers
Gabourey Sidibe
Nicole Ari Parker

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