Free Republic

Chicago’s top prosecutor apologized Wednesday because an attorney who works under her implied in court that 13-year-old Adam Toledo was holding a gun when a police officer fatally shot him, and she acknowledged that neither she nor anyone in her office tried to clear up the matter until right before video was released showing that wasn’t actually the case. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office came under fire after the April 15 release of body camera video showing that Toledo either dropped or tossed the gun less than a second before Officer Eric Stillman shot and killed him early on...

A virtual rally in support of a proposed constitutional amendment to change Illinois' income tax system to a graduated-rate tax was sidetracked by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle delivering a lengthy pitch for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s reelection. The rally of high-profile Democrats, hosted by the proposed amendment’s chief supporter, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, also featured Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton alleging amendment opponents were billionaires fighting against “communities of color and women and working-class families all across the state.” But pro-amendment discussion, dubbed the “fair tax” by supporters, gave way when Preckwinkle, the Cook County Democratic Party chair and a strong...

Embattled Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said Thursday she understands the “angst and fear” Chicagoans feel after two devastating rounds of looting and a 50% surge in homicides and shootings, but her “social agenda” is not responsible. Foxx said “everything is on the table,” including the possibility of reversing or modifying her controversial decision to raise the felony threshold for shoplifting offenses — from $300 to $1,000. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose downtown ward was devastated by two rounds of looting, bolted from the Democratic Party this week to endorse Republican Pat O’Brien. Reilly complained about Foxx’s failure to...

Some Cook County residents will be hearing from Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on why the former prosecutor thinks state’s attorney Kim Foxx’s progressive vision is the right choice for voters this November. In a robocall scheduled to be sent out this week, the U.S. senator from California ramps up her February endorsement of the Democratic incumbent and defends the county’s top prosecutor’s record in reforming criminal justice, Foxx’s campaign announced Wednesday. She portrays Foxx as a bulwark against Republican President Donald Trump’s policies, which the state’s attorney’s office has sued the administration over, in a bid to parlay...

Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, a critic of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, bucked his fellow Democrats to endorse the Republican challenger in one of the most anticipated local races this November. Reilly’s decision was announced by Patrick O’Brien’s campaign, but earlier last week the 42nd Ward alderman’s political committee gave $1,000 to the GOP challenger’s political war chest. Reilly also sent text messages and calls touting his endorsement to his ward’s residents. “Alderman Brendan Reilly 42nd Ward Chicago and his constituents know, firsthand, the consequences of Kim Foxx’s failure to aggressively prosecute repeat gun offenders and violent criminals downtown,”...

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is ramping up her attacks on her Republican challenger just as a new poll shows the Democratic incumbent losing ground. Foxx also reported a fundraising boost from a couple of top Democratic donors. The incumbent argues that O’Brien is “pure Trump." Republicans say O’Brien’s rise in the polls shows voters are deciding what’s wrong for voters are “the disastrous policies of Kim Foxx.” Foxx’s 30-second ad describes O’Brien and President Donald Trump as “angry” Republicans who want to “‘lock em up’ regardless of evidence.” Foxx has gone after O’Brien previously for his role as...

With less than three weeks until the final votes can be cast, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is heading into the home stretch of her re-election bid with the potential to be outspent nearly two-to-one by Republican rival Pat O’Brien. The Democratic incumbent reported having $202,290.45 left in her campaign coffers at the end of last month, and available filings show only $14,300 raised since then, giving her roughly $216,590.45 to spend. “Cook County residents have seen firsthand how Kim Foxx has failed to protect our families, victims of crime, and neighborhoods,” O’Brien said in a statement. “I look...

Kim Foxx said “no” to a debate against her Republican opponent in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race and will not sit on a stage with him at all as she campaigns for reelection. “We learned during the recent Ed board interviews, that the State’s Attorney participated in with Mr. O’Brien, that he will instead use the time for Trump-like name calling and fear mongering,” Sims wrote. “During this nationwide crisis, she will not sit across the stage from a Republican that exploits tragedy to win a campaign. We had plenty of that last night. Voters deserve better.” O’Brien quickly...

Vote to keep Judge Michael Toomin on the bench. Don’t let the Democratic Party, which has happily endorsed a parade of slugs for judicial retention for decades, succeed in dumping one of the more independent and capable judges. Don’t let the party bosses win. With all its vindictiveness and corruption, the party’s decision to dump Toomin looks like nothing more than retaliation. The judge crossed the party bosses once too often. Toomin infuriated the old guard when he appointed a special prosecutor to investigate a possible cover-up of an assault by a nephew of former Mayor Daley. The assault led...

Foxx and friends — including her patron, Cook County Democratic boss Toni Preckwinkle and Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans — act as if they’re untouchable. Preckwinkle is so confident as party boss that she spearheaded a nonendorsement of respected Judge Michael Toomin in the election because he dared order a special prosecutor in Foxx’s Jussie Smollett alleged fake hate crime fiasco. Preckwinkle hopes voters won’t connect the dots. “It’s outrageous what’s being done to Judge Toomin,” retired Judge Sheila O’Brien, who pushed for a special prosecutor in the Smollett case, told me. “Preckwinkle should be ashamed. This is a...

Judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor to look at how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office handled the controversial Jussie Smollett case. On Monday, the Cook County Democratic Party, chaired by Foxx ally Toni Preckwinkle, took the rare step of voting not to endorse Toomin for retention. The move set off a political firestorm. Toomin called it “retaliation.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it looked like payback. Democratic leaders who dumped Toomin pointed to what they said was his outdated approach to juvenile justice as they declared it was time for him to retire. Adding intrigue to...

Pat O’Brien, Republican candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, blamed Democratic incumbent Kim Foxx Sunday for the fatal stabbing of an employee at a Walgreens store in Wicker Park, prompting her campaign to accuse O’Brien of “fear mongering” and taking a page out of President Donald Trump’s “playbook.” Last Sunday, 18-year-old Sincere Williams allegedly entered the Walgreens store at 1372 N. Milwaukee and repeatedly stabbed employee Olga Marie Calderon, a 32-year-old mother of two who was killed, officials reported. O’Brien said Williams was arrested in May and charged as a juvenile in a burglary at a Melrose Park gun shop,...

Chicago police’s largest union donated $57,800 to Kim Foxx’s challenger in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race. In addition, the former judge looking to unseat the Democratic incumbent this November received $5,000 from the Chicago Police Sergeants Association Fund. “Kim Foxx doesn’t have the experience or judgment to run an office in regular times, and in times where there are events which obviously would test anyone, she certainly has failed that test,” O’Brien said. “There certainly is more of a feeling that I’m getting from business leaders and from individuals that they are sick and tired of favoring the criminal...

In the ongoing effort to get control of the city’s streets, Mayor Lori Lightfoot staged a news conference last Friday that was meant to make a statement. Standing on a platform in Olive Park, offset by a sapphire Lake Michigan on a topaz-sky day, the Magnificent Mile’s skyscrapers served as backdrop. Aldermen, clergy, federal and state law enforcement officials all stood as socially distanced props. Lightfoot even invited Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to stand within shouting distance of her new police superintendent, David Brown. Days earlier, Foxx had called out Brown and Lightfoot for “dishonest blame games,” after...

Foxx, the Cook County state’s attorney, has been publicly called out as a liar for her handling of that disastrous Jussie Smollett fake hate crime case. She bent backward for the celebrity entertainer, and she accepted phone calls from people with Obama White House clout. Then she tried to make the case go away. Now she’s been called out as a liar by liberal pundits, distinguished editorial boards and even by other lawyers. Foxx made up nonsense about why she was dropping charges against Smollett, after she indicted him on 16 counts of faking a hate crime that he blamed...

In bungling People vs. Jussie Smollett, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx lied to her clients — the public, special prosecutor Dan Webb said. If you live in Cook County, that client is you. Foxx is betting you can't do anything about it. With 38 days before voter start to cast ballots to decide the fate of her re-election bid, Foxx issued a public statement, tweeted her political spin and vanished to avoid questioning. Foxx conveniently glossed over the report allegations that Foxx made a handful of false statements to the public after her office dropped 16 felony charges alleging...

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx blew yet another chance to put the Jussie Smollett controversy behind her when she issued a defiant, tone-deaf response to special prosecutor Dan Webb’s summary of his investigation. Webb’s summary was damning and devastating. It accused Foxx’s office of “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” and of “making false and/or misleading statements to the public” in overseeing the strange, high-profile case of a Hollywood celebrity who allegedly faked a hate crime attack against himself here in 2019. But rather than issue a long overdue apology or explanation, Foxx responded defensively yet again, denying...

Riding in trucks and U-Hauls, vandals came to Chicago. They jammed the Magnificent Mile, the city’s most important shopping district. They came prepared with tools to pry open gates and take all the merchandise that they could pack. It was a strike directed at the heart of the city. For months, the state’s attorney, the mayor, and the governor—have failed to condemn criminals or act with necessary force against such violence. They have contributed to a culture of impunity that tolerates mobs and hoodlums. Kim Foxx has already become nationally notorious for refusing to prosecute Jussie Smollett, a provocateur who...

It’s been more than a quarter of a century since a Republican has been elected to Cook County’s top prosecutor’s seat, but former Circuit Court Judge Pat O’Brien said Thursday that he intends to be the next one. After cruising through the GOP primary Tuesday, O’Brien outlined his plans to beat incumbent Democrat Kim Foxx in a live-streamed news conference, thanking his family, friends and “everyone who voted against Kim Foxx.” “We really have to clean up the mess that she’s made,” O’Brien said, not even a minute into his remarks. “I think we have to restore justice to the...

Cook County Republicans might have just been handed their best shot at recapturing an office they have not held since Bill Clinton was president. Special Prosecutor Dan Webb’s finding of “substantial abuses of discretion” in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case virtually ensures that Democratic incumbent Kim Foxx will still be answering questions about the matter right up until the November election. “Aside from him coming out with an actual criminal charge against her, it’s about as devastating a report as a sitting state’s attorney can have leveled against them,” Cook County Republican Chairman...