Kamala Harris has no idea what to make of the Jussie Smollett case.
The presidential candidate who once said that Smollett was the victim of a “modern day lynching” is now “confused” after the Empire actor had charges of fabricating a hate crime abruptly dropped Tuesday.
The case has been a bizarre, and, for many, infuriating series of twists and turns that have left Smollett’s one-time supporters, including Harris, stammering. The highly unusual circumstances surrounding the sudden reversal have also prompted outrage and scrutiny from Chicago police, prosecutors, and many others who see foul play at work.
Harris left stammering
“To be perfectly honest… I’m completely confused. I don’t understand. I don’t know. I don’t know the underlying evidence… I don’t know. I’m at a loss,” Harris told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday night. “I think we’re going to have to leave it up to the judgment of the prosecutor….he police chief and the mayor, of course, to give us some better sense of what’s going on. I don’t know,” she said, referring to First Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Joseph Magats, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Harris was quick to come to Smollett’s defense when he claimed in January that he was the victim of a hate crime. Smollett had said that two Trump supporters assaulted him in Chicago while shouting anti-gay and racist slurs. While Smollett was still considered a victim, Harris tweeted that “we must confront this hate” and likened the alleged attack to a “modern day lynching.”
Then, a police investigation turned on Smollett when evidence emerged that he had faked the attack. News that Smollett was arrested and charged with filing a false police report in February caught his supporters, like Harris, off guard. At the time, the senator said she felt “sad, frustrated, and disappointed.”
“When anyone makes false claims to police, it not only diverts resources away from serious investigations but it makes it more difficult for other victims of crime to come forward,” Harris said.
The senator was left stammering again when Smollett, in a highly unusual turn of events, had 16 felony counts suddenly dropped.
“I think there’s a point that the mayor [Rahm Emanuel] made that I would like to emphasize because I’m seeing it around the country and it’s a very real issue, which is the seriousness of hate crime,” Harris told CNN. “We have seen an increase around our country…and we cannot play games with it. We have to take it very seriously.”
Smollett case prompts outrage
Smollett doubled down on his innocence after charges were dropped, with his lawyers saying Smollett’s name had been “dragged through the mud.” His lawyer also trotted out a highly unusual defense Tuesday, saying that Smollett’s attackers could have been in white face.
This attempt by Smollett and his legal team to twist the narrative was taken up by some, including CNN’s Brian Stelter, who quickly claimed that “we may never know what happened that night.” Smollett is also nominated for an NAACP Image Award that will be announced this Saturday.
But not everyone is letting Smollett off the hook so quickly. After blaming President Trump for creating a “toxic environment” that he says led Smollett to think he could get away with fabricating a hate crime, Mayor Emanuel called the dropped charges a “whitewash of justice” on Tuesday. Johnson expressed similar frustration over the news.
Chicago is now seeking a $130,000 check from Smollett to compensate for the time and money police wasted investigating the hoax. For his part, President Trump has said the case is an “embarrassment” and that he wants federal authorities to look into the case.
Not so fast
The prosecutor’s office said that Smollett hasn’t been exonerated, which only makes the case more mysterious and confusing. An internal email from Cook County State’s Attorney Office Kim Foxx surfaced this week in which Foxx sought examples to bolster the impression that the decision to drop charges wasn’t as unusual as it seemed.
To make things even stranger, Foxx later clarified that she did not actually recuse herself from the case in a legal sense, when she said earlier this month that she would step away from it after reports emerged that a former aide to former First Lady Michelle Obama, Tina Tchen, texted Foxx to put her in touch with Smollett’s family.
Foxx responded to Tchen and the relative that she was working to have the case turned over to the FBI. But while the exchange occurred while Smollett was not suspected of faking the attack, the contacts have been called unusual and improper, and some have wondered if Tchen played a role in getting the charges dropped.
The Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association wrote in a scathing letter Thursday that the “manner in which this case was dismissed was abnormal and unfamiliar to those who practice law in criminal courthouses across the State.”
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