Jussie Smollett ratcheted up racial tensions by claiming he was the victim of a hate crime. All charges against him have been dropped after it came to light it was staged in the name of self promotion. This has been a disgrace to people who have truly been victims of hate crimes. I discuss the disappointing turn of events on Fox News with Shepard Smith.

#JussieSmollett #SmollettCase #injustice #FoxNews #crime #hoax #hatecrime

“Dropping charges against Smollett is a whitewash of justice”

March 29th, 2019

Shepard Smith: Now, Criminal Defense Attorney, former Prosecutor, Bob Bianchi is here.

Robert Bianchi: Shep, I have a question. Why not give the guy a kiss? This is unbelievable. It’s a disgrace to those who are truly victims of hate crimes, to the police that exhaustedly went through this, to a Prosecutor who accepted that he committed these crimes, to the grand jury that indicted him and there were defendants that we have, and I represent one right now who have done far, far less and they wouldn’t get this kind of treatment. It’s a whitewash. And then they seal the records and he gets to go out and say I’m innocent. The Mayor’s been thrown under the bus, the judicial system has been thrown under the bus. The Chicago Police Department is, and this is what really got me. Let’s listen to what the Prosecutor said, because there’s only one valid reason to reverse a grand jury investigation and that is newly discovered evidence breeding material, we call it. Here’s the answer that the Prosecutor gave her for making this unbelievably disgraceful decision, after reviewing the facts and circumstances of the case. Yikes, you think you do that when you presented the case to the grand jury, including his volunteer service and agreement to forfeit his bond, which is 10,000 dollar which is nothing. We believe the outcome is just, and the disposition appropriate resolution of this case. It’s outrageous.

Shepard Smith: The Prosecutors make a decision not to prosecute and then the Mayor and the Police Chief come out and say that there’s a deal that’s been brokered behind which he’s hiding, but by definition there is no deal. Charges are dismissed, everything is dropped and everything is sealed. Right, but like, will we like ever know?

Robert Bianchi: Well, I, I, you know what I would do? I tactically, if I were the police department, say that I want to sue him civilly and bring him into the court for the tens perhaps, hundreds of thousands of dollars of police resources that could have went into ferreting out real crime that were wasted on this investigations that happened.

Shepard Smith: The Prosecutor said he didn’t do that. He didn’t fake this.

Robert Bianchi: They didn’t say that he didn’t do it. They just said that they felt this was an appropriate disposition. You can’t take the money. The bond money for no reason.

Shepard Smith: Actually, what they said was he did a nice community service and he gave us 1,0,000 dollars therefore we’re dismissing the charges.

Robert Bianchi: Exactly. What they didn’t say was he didn’t do this there. No, he just can’t take the guys 10,000 dollars for no reason. You got to take it because there’s an admission list and we’ll get rid of your case, and we’ll dismiss the charges if you give this as a penalty. So, the Prosecutor saying that’s punishment enough. The Prosecutor did not say he did not do this, and if I were the Chicago police department in the mirror, I would bring a civil suit, so that I can get him on the record.

Shepard Smith: Is that ought to be something we don’t know Bob. We do know that the state’s attorney recused herself in the early going, said that she had received communication, that the family was unhappy with the way it was being handled, that she had received a communication from the former Chief of Staff of the former first lady.

Robert Bianchi: Yeah, please.

Shepard Smith: And, and we don’t know if she was involved in this in any way.

Robert Bianchi: You know, people who argue about the differences and disparities in race in terms of incarceration and things of that nature. I’ve always said it is about green, dollars, money, power, influence, that’s making these decisions because there are many poor minorities right now who are charged with minor marijuana offenses that have records for the rest of their lives and go to jail. What he did here was put a hoax that put police in danger. The community in danger, the minority community was very upset about this and understandably so, ratcheted up racial tension and ongoing conspiracy with multiple individuals to fool the public, to fool the police, lied repeatedly to the police. That guy gets off with this, gets this kiss. It’s a disgrace. And in fact, I’ll tell you as a Prosecutor that the police department is the even apprised of this prior to the decision being made and they find out about it on the media. That’s not how Prosecutors and police operate. Shep, I can tell you that to a certainty.

Shepard Smith: And then the Mayor stands up and calls the whole thing a sham. Have you ever seen anything like this?

Robert Bianchi: Honest to God, I’ve never seen anything like this. Usually the law, unfortunately sometimes people hold their nose because you’ve got to make a Prosecutorial decision based on a lack of evidence or newly discovered evidence. That’s why I wanted to see what this statement said about that and it said nothing. This was just a whitewash. Political influence used in order to get him out from under and all those minority kids that are out there in Chicago that are being arrested and convicted for offenses far less than this, far less gravity than this. I like to see what their Defense Attorney’s going to do when they go do the Cook County prosecutors say, how about my guy?

Shepard Smith: It’s been my experience that Prosecutors and investigators, meaning the police department work hand in hand on matters like this and when a big decision like this has to be made, it’s going to face a lot of public scrutiny. They get together and discuss a strategy for how to present it all. Instead they stood up one side said one thing, and the other side called him, called him horrible.

Robert Bianchi: Absolutely. I ran an agency, so sometimes I had to make decisions that the police were uncomfortable with, but I brought them into the office, I explained to them my reasons for those decisions. And again, they may hold the nose, but they would say, okay, fine, that’s your discretion. But it was based upon the facts and it was based upon the law. The fact that they never even communicated to this and the police in the marriage was blindsided when they find out about this emergency hearing that had to happen so quickly with this kiss of an agreement, they call it.

Shepard Smith: They called all the reporters down there this morning. You got to come, they them they called everybody been covering. You got to come down here. We’re going to have a news conference.

Robert Bianchi: It’s, it’s, it is the distribute investigated. There was something completely not correct with what went on here and I’ve never seen anything like this where you have a Mayor and a police department that are now at odds with a Prosecutor’s office where they work with them day in and day out about what they believe. I know they feel like they got him thrown under the bus. Then now everybody’s going out and saying, oh, the police investigated them. It was a sham. How can you, as a Prosecutor, I’ve indicted cases in the grand jury, the grand jury, the citizens of the county are the ones that make a decision of whether or not there’s going to be an indictment and 23 folks said there was enough evidence to move this case forward to trial, and the Prosecutor unilaterally decides to give it away. It’s not right.

Shepard Smith: Bob Bianchi, I think there’s probably more coming here.

Robert Bianchi: I’m agitated and I hope there is.

Shepard Smith: Bob, wow. Thank you. There’s so much.