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| Jussie Smollett | Wikipedia |
A former Cook County assistant state’s attorney this morning withdrew his request for a special prosecutor to investigate the State’s Attorney’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
Saani Mohammed filed the request for a special prosecutor on April 4th, saying that the Smollett case was “plagued with irregularity.”
But this morning, Mohammed appeared briefly before Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., the presiding judge of the Criminal Division, to withdraw that petition. No written motion was in the court file this afternoon. Mohammed did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Martin approved the motion to withdraw.
One day after Mohammed’s case was filed, former Illinois Appellate Court Judge Sheila O’Brien filed her own motion seeking a special prosecutor to look into the Smollett matter.
Both petitions asked for a special prosecutor to look into the conduct of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her underlings. Mohammed and O’Brien both wanted the special prosecutor to consider recharging Smollett with faking the hate crime.
O’Brien’s petition will be before Martin again on Thursday. The former judge has subpoenaed Foxx and Joseph Magats, the top deputy who took over the Smollett case when Foxx “colloquially” recused herself, to appear at the hearing. O’Brien wants them to produce the criminal case’s original documents to ensure “that they have not been altered or destroyed and will not be destroyed throughout this case.”
Smollett has also been asked to appear on Thursday.
