Kim Foxx did not ‘formally’ recuse herself from Jussie Smollett case: prosecutors

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not “formally” recuse herself from the Jussie Smollett case — she only did so “colloquially,” prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The revelation about Foxx’s recusal comes amid mounting questions over prosecutors’ sudden decision to drop all 16 felony charges against the actor.

Foxx “did not formally recuse herself or the [State’s Attorney] Office based on any actual conflict of interest. As a result, she did not have to seek the appointment of a special prosecutor,” Keira Ellis, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office, said in a statement to Patch.

Foxx quietly recused herself on Feb. 13 but her office only revealed the move six days later.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the decision to recuse herself was made to address potential questions of impartiality based upon familiarity with potential witnesses in the case,” Foxx’s spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said on Feb. 20.

Top aide Robert Foley released a separate statement, saying Foxx “had conversations with a family member of Jussie Smollett about the incident and their concerns and facilitated a connection to the Chicago Police Department, who were investigating the incident.”

But Ellis clarified that Foxx’s recusal “was a colloquial use of the term rather than in its legal sense.”

“Instead, in an abundance of caution, Fox informally separated herself from the decision-making over the case and left it to her Assistants, as happens in 99.9% of all cases handled by the Office,” Ellis said.

The case was then passed over to First Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Magats.

Smollett was arrested on charges he staged his own hate-crime attack on Feb. 21. He was indicted by a Cook County grand jury on March 8.

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