Kim Foxx, the Cook County prosecutor who nearly let disgraced actor Jussie Smollett walk scot-free, will not seek re-election in 2024.
Foxx announced her decision during a speech at the City Club of Chicago at lunchtime Tuesday, CWB Chicago reports.
She now intends to complete her term which ends in December 2024.
As Breitbart News reported, Foxx came to public attention after stumbling through the prosecution of disgraced actor Jussie Smollett and initially setting him free.
Smollett claimed in January 2019 that he had been attacked by two men shouting racial and homophobic slurs.
At the time, Smollett was a popular cast member of the hit show “Empire.”
Jussie Smollett might want to call his lawyer. https://t.co/wxu5MM1aYe
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 3, 2019
Foxx’s office first prosecuted Smollett before dropping the charges weeks later, and a review found Foxx and others in her office made multiple false statements about the case.
A judge then assigned a special prosecutor who charged Smollett with disorderly conduct over the police reports. The actor pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A jury found the former actor guilty on five of six charges in the case where he was accused of staging an anti-gay, racist attack on himself and then lied to Chicago police about it.
He was acquitted on one count.
Actor Jussie Smollett is led out of the courtroom after being sentenced at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on March 10, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Brian Cassella-Pool/Getty Images)
He is appealing his 2022 conviction for lying to police and was released from the Cook County jail in March as that effort continues.
After Smollett was convicted last year, Foxx dismissed it as “a kangaroo prosecution.”
As Breitbart News noted previously, referencing a Chicago Tribune article, Foxx also “dropped 25,000 felony cases,” which included cases involving murder charges, during her tenure.
“In 2020, billionaire left-wing activist George Soros gave $2 million to a PAC backing Kim Foxx,” Breitbart News pointed out, citing the Chicago Sun-Times.