Jussie Smollett, The Chicago Way, And MAGA

Authored by Steve Cortes via RealClearPolitics,

Justice is denied by the corrupt blue state powerbrokers

In his epic poem “Chicago,” Carl Sandburg popularized the moniker of Chicago as the “city of big shoulders.” But the famed poet also described the unsavory underbelly of this metropolis: “And they tell me you are crooked, and I answer: Yes, it is true...”

For six years now, Jussie Smollett has exploited that crookedness – and has escaped justice for the ludicrous hoax he perpetrated against the people of Chicago and against the tens of millions of believers in the America First movement.

The Illinois Supreme Court just overturned the conviction of Jussie Smollett for completely fabricating a crime hoax that was concocted to build sympathy and fame for the actor. Though Smollett was convicted and sentenced already, with both rulings upheld by the Illinois Appellate Court, the partisan state high court let Smollett walk away freely, claiming “due process violations.”

But despite this ruling on a technicality, the facts of the case remain undisputed. Back in January 2019, Smollett absurdly claimed that he was randomly assaulted by bigoted “MAGA” thugs on a dark downtown Chicago street, during a polar vortex so bone-chillingly cold that even Chicagoans stayed almost entirely indoors. He then claims these phantom Trumpers poured bleach on him, called him slurs, and put a noose around his neck. Um, yeah … how dumb do you have to be to believe that tale?

The bitter cold alone was a sufficient reason to doubt his fantastical claims, as I stated immediately on CNN, where I then worked as a commentator from Chicago. I was summarily put into a “time out” by the channel, the first of several such TV benchings.

But Smollett received fawning sympathy and praise from the powerbrokers of the Ruling Class, from celebrities to elected officials. Then a U.S. senator, Kamala Harris posted to Twitter that the episode represented “an attempted modern day lynching.”

Once the hoax was revealed fully due to diligent detective work by the Chicago Police Department, Jussie faced criminal charges for the serious crime of inventing such a heinous crime. In a city full of constant violence, the cops of the Second City should not be chasing down ghost perpetrators dreamed up by a troubled and fame-starved B-list actor.

But even more importantly, Jussie fed into a propaganda machine that the ruling class used throughout Trump’s first term to paint the entire movement of patriotic populism as bigoted and retrograde. Smollett knowingly leveraged the media and Democratic Party narrative that prejudice motivated Trump supporters, rather than a yearning for American sovereignty and for Main Street prosperity.

In this regard, Smollett disparaged not just the good citizens of Chicago, but the masses nationwide who support this giant young political movement. When Smollett completely invented a story and claimed to be the victim of an attack that he himself orchestrated, he committed a clear and punishable crime. 

At first, the corrupt, Soros-backed local prosecutor, Kim Foxx, offered Smollett a sweetheart deal of incredible leniency. I wrote about it back in 2019 for RealClear Politics:

Notwithstanding the absurdity of his allegations and the meticulous work of the Chicago PD, the office of State’s Attorney Kim Foxx decided, without informing police officials or the Chicago mayor, to allow Smollett to walk away from the serious proceedings, practically scot-free. The charges were dropped, the case was sealed, and the only penalty Smollett faced at all was the forfeiture of his $10,000 posted bail.

But, after a lot of legal machinations and the intervention of a judge and a Chicago special prosecutor, Smollett was then convicted of the serious crimes he committed.

Now that conviction has been overturned, and the “Chicago Way” of endemic corruption prevails. The “crookedness” that Carl Sandburg wrote about still festers. But the ramifications extend far beyond Chicago itself. In blue jurisdictions across America, it becomes increasingly clear that parallel systems of jurisprudence exist. From Alvin Bragg’s New York City to Chicago to Fulton County, Georgia, corrupt prosecutors and courts target political enemies and protect political allies, even reprehensible ones like Jussie Smollett. We cannot function as a healthy republic with dual tracks of jurisprudence. As such, this latest Smollett abuse should serve to compel corrective action across the nation to achieve true equal justice, under law.

Steve Cortes is former senior advisor to President Trump, former commentator for Fox News and CNN, and president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group.