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EU goods trade surplus with U.S. grows, deficit with China widens

FILE PHOTO: Containers and cars are loaded on freight trains at the railroad shunting yard in Maschen near Hamburg
FILE PHOTO: Containers and cars are loaded on freight trains at the railroad shunting yard in Maschen near Hamburg September 23, 2012. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

April 17, 2019

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s trade surplus in goods with the United States increased in the first two months of 2019 while its deficit with China widened, figures that could increase global economic tensions.

The European Union’s surplus with the United States grew to 21.6 billion euros in Jan-Feb 2019 from 20.9 billion euros ($23.7 billion) in the same period of 2018, EU statistics office Eurostat reported on Wednesday. With China, the EU’s trade deficit expanded to 37.8 billion from 35.5 billion euros.

The United States has hit the European Union with tariffs and threatened more in complaint over the trade balance. Both Washington and Brussels have also complained that China wants free trade without playing fair.

Overall, the goods trade deficit of the 28-nation bloc increased to 28.4 billion euros in Jan-Feb 2019 from 20.7 billion a year earlier.

Energy imports were the chief cause of the deficit, especially from Russia and Norway.

For the narrower 19-country euro zone, exports grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year in February and imports by 4.0 percent, leading to an expansion of its trade surplus to 17.9 billion in February from 16.5 billion euros a year earlier.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the euro zone’s trade surplus also increased to 19.5 billion euros in February from 17.4 billion in January as exports fell by 1.4 percent and imports declined by 2.7 percent.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)

Source: OANN

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Algeria awaits constitutional signal on Bouteflika’s fate

FILE PHOTO: Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika looks at journalists after casting his ballot during the parliamentary election in Algiers
FILE PHOTO: Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika looks at journalists after casting his ballot during the parliamentary election in Algiers, Algeria, May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo

March 27, 2019

By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algerians waited on Wednesday for a decision by the constitutional council on whether ailing President Bouteflika is fit for office, after the top army officer called for his removal in a bid to defuse mass protests.

Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, addressing officers in a speech broadcast on Tuesday, said the solution to the biggest political crisis since the army canceled elections in 1992 would be the exit of the president on health grounds.

The position taken by the powerful army chief of staff was a clear signal that the president – who has rarely appeared in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 – will not survive the protests which have threatened to topple the ruling elite.

The political turmoil has highlighted growing public discontent with the allegations of corruption, nepotism and economic mismanagement that have tarnished Bouteflika’s 20-year rule.

“This is a default solution following the failure of the negotiations on the departure of the President. It moves away from the democratic transition and approaches a framed succession,” said Hasni Abidi, a Swiss-based Algerian who heads a think tank.

That approach may break a deadlock for now. Protesters are pushing for an overhaul of the powerful establishment entrenched in power since independence from France in 1962, and the old guard hopes it can put forward a candidate approved by the army.

For years, rumors have swirled about potential successors, but no single credible candidate has emerged with the backing of the military, the political and security establishment who is not at least 70.

HIGH STAKES

The next formal step is for the constitutional council to formally rule on Bouteflika’s fitness for office. The body has not said when it might reach its decision. Any ruling that he is not fit to rule would have to be ratified by members of parliament’s lower and upper house by a two-thirds majority.

Based on Article 102 of the constitution, the chairman of parliament’s upper house, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days in the nation of more than 40 million people.

The last time the army stepped in during a crisis was in 1992, when the generals canceled an election that Islamists were poised to win.

That move triggered a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

The military remains highly sensitive to any signs of instability and Salah has warned he will not allow the demonstrations to lead to chaos.

The stakes are high, for Algeria is a leading member of OPEC and a top gas supplier to Europe, though so far oil and gas output appears unaffected by the unrest, an International Energy Agency (IEA) official said on Tuesday.

Algeria is also regarded by Western states as a partner in counter-terrorism, a significant military force in North Africa and a key diplomatic player in efforts to resolve crises in neighboring Mali and Libya.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: OANN

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U.S. bank executives say Wall Street has reformed, though crisis scars linger

A Wall Street sign outside the New York Stock Exchange
FILE PHOTO - A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

April 9, 2019

(Reuters) – The U.S. economy is strong and Wall Street has reformed practices that contributed to the financial crisis a decade ago, chief executives of some of the largest U.S. banks said in prepared testimony released by the House Financial Services Committee late on Monday.

But in discussing all the progress that has been made, there was also an acknowledgement that scars from the crisis linger, and that many consumers still have a negative perception of the financial industry.

“Confidence in U.S. financial services and the American economy remains uncertain,” wrote Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, the largest U.S. bank.

Testimony from CEOs of Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street Corp and Northern Trust also appeared.

Wednesday will mark the first time the largest U.S. banks have appeared before Congress since the 2008 financial crisis, and will see the CEOs face off against Democratic Representative Maxine Waters and progressives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have fiercely criticized Wall Street. Waters leads the committee which vets financial companies on behalf of the U.S. lower house.

As the 2020 election race heats up, U.S. Democrats driven by progressive firebrands like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren see financial inclusion as a draw for voters.

In their testimonies, the chief executives emphasized a range of regulatory measures including stress tests and so-called “living wills” adopted since 2008 that have helped bolster capital levels and improve the safety and soundness of the U.S. system, as well as other improvements to risk management and culture.

Some banks including Morgan Stanley also emphasized the contribution they make to the U.S. economy through community lending, underwriting and green finance, while also acknowledging the industry needed to do better on liberal issues like diversity.

“We recognize that we have significant work to do to achieve our diversity goals, and that it requires efforts at every level of the firm to deliver results over the long term,” Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman wrote in his testimony.

Citigroup said the biggest U.S. banks are in a better position to handle an economic downturn at present than they were during the last crisis, adding that the bank has doubled its regulatory capital since the financial crisis despite shrinking its balance sheet by $500 billion over the last decade.

“We recognize that rebuilding trust is harder than rebuilding your balance sheet,” said Citigroup Chief Executive Mike Corbat.

The executives also discussed cybersecurity, diversity initiatives, executive compensation and controversial arbitration clauses in consumer contracts, in response to questions asked by Waters, who invited them to appear.

(Reporting by Lauren LaCapra and Imani Moise in New York, Michelle Price in Washington and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

Source: OANN

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Brazil government likely to pay Petrobras $10 billion in transfer-of-rights dispute: report

A policeman stands in front of the Petrobras headquarters during a protest in Rio de Janeiro
A policeman stands in front of the Petrobras headquarters during a protest in Rio de Janeiro March 4, 2015. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

March 19, 2019

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The Brazilian government is likely to pay around $10 billion to state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA to settle the so-called ‘transfer-of-rights’ dispute, newspaper Valor Economico reported on Tuesday, though the parties have not agreed on final terms.

The financial daily, citing a source with knowledge of the matter, said the payment was a reduction from a previous proposal of $14 billion. Valor in January had reported that the government had agreed on the higher figure, but the government subsequently denied the report.

The two sides are close to an agreement, the paper said, reiterating statements by public officials in recent weeks.

Petrobras, as the firm is widely known, did not respond to a request for comment. The economy ministry said that “the negotiations continue” and the final values “will be announced when they are agreed upon between parties.”

The transfer-of-rights dispute dates back to a 2010 deal between the government and Petrobras relating to a huge share offering that would have diluted the government’s stake.

To maintain control of the company, the government sold Petrobras the rights to explore 5 billion barrels of oil in an area off Brazil’s coast for 74.8 billion reais at the time. With that money, it bought additional Petrobras shares.

Brazil’s oil regulator now estimates there are around 17 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the area, and the government is seeking to auction rights for the exploration of the excess oil. First, the two sides need to resolve the dispute over the area, which will result in a significant payment to Petrobras.

On Friday, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said – without specifying the currency – that Petrobras and the government had started off 60 billion apart in their negotiating positions, but were now only 2 billion apart. The figures likely refer to dollars, as the two sides at one point each believed they were owed $30 billion.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Media’s botched Russia coverage will bring 'day of reckoning… like we haven't seen since 2016:' Joe Concha

The media’s constant push over the past few years of the unsubstantiated claim that President Trump and his campaign staff conspired with Russia is going to bring about a “day of reckoning… like we haven’t seen since the 2016 election."

That's according to media reporter Joe Concha, who discussed the coverage of Mueller's investigation during an interview on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning.

His comments come one day after Attorney General Bill Barr sent a letter to key congressional leaders summarizing the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, in which he wrote it “did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”

“Throughout these last 22 months, gossip was treated as gospel,” Concha said. “Sources providing information to reporters all too willing to accept it, like seagulls at the beach.

WATCH FOX NEWS' LIVE COVERAGE

“This is a day of reckoning for our media like we haven’t seen since the 2016 election. I would say, maybe the worst day ever for our media given all that coverage and the pushing of that particular narrative around Russia collusion.”

Concha said that narrative included frequent uses of phrases about how the “‘walls are closing in,’ [the] ‘noose is tightening’ and ‘this is the beginning of the end’” for Trump and his closest campaign associates.

“And now we are hearing, even yesterday and this morning, this is the beginning of something else. The next chapter,” he said. “You know why? Because it’s good for ratings and because people want to believe the worst about this president.”

Concha also lamented how The Washington Post and the New York Times “won Pulitzers for their reporting on Russian collusion.”

The Washington Post, in an article last year highlighting their Pulitzer Prize, said its stories on Russia “exposed secret or undisclosed information and altered America’s political landscape.”

READ THE MUELLER REPORT FINDINGS

“The Post’s revelations about Russia, including contacts between Russian figures and President Trump’s associates and advisers, helped set the stage for the special counsel’s ongoing investigation of the administration,” it wrote.

But Concha said for all the time spent pushing unsubstantiated claims of collusion, the media could have better invested their resources elsewhere.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Think of the stories we missed as the result of Russia,” he told ‘Fox & Friends’. “The economy’s performance as it pertains to wages, or unemployment or growth. The destruction of the ISIS caliphate. That suddenly came out of nowhere, it seemed to a lot of people, because no one was really covering it.

“And the most overlooked story? The opioid epidemic, 70,000 people killed in 2017 alone. That’s more than car crashes, you hardly hear about that. And that’s what affects real Americans’ lives.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Dem Jerry Nadler: AG Barr ‘Biased Defender’ of Trump Administration

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Sunday bitterly lashed out at Attorney General William Barr as a “biased defender” of the Trump administration, saying his summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was unreliable.

In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the panel is “entitled” to see the full report. 

"We're hearing leaks that Barr misrepresented in his so-called summary letter what's in the report, that he sugar coated it, that he made it look more favorable for the president than it was,” Nadler said. 

"I dismiss what [Barr] said. He's a biased defender of the administration and he's entitled to be defending the administration but he is not entitled to withhold the evidence from Congress."


Nadler indicated if necessary, lawmakers could go to court to ensure they’ll see even grand jury data in the Mueller report.

"Congress has a right to the entire report with no redactions whatsoever so we can see what's there,” he said. “We're entitled to see it because Congress represents the nation. And Congress has to take action on any of it. So we're entitled to see all of it."

"We would have to go the court to get the release of the grand jury information but that has happened successfully in every previous situation,” he added. “And it's not up to the attorney general to decide with respect to that or with respect to other material that he decides Congress can't see."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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White House Spokeswoman Says DOJ Findings a 'Total Exoneration' of Trump

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Sunday the Department of Justice's findings on the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election were a "total and complete exoneration of the President of the United States."

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who spent nearly two years investigating allegations that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win, found no evidence that any member of Trump's election campaign conspired with Russia during the election.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Slack Technologies Inc, operator of the popular workplace instant-messaging app, reported a loss of $140.7 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing ahead of its planned public market debut.

The company said its daily active users exceeded 10 million in the three months ended Jan. 31, 2019.

Slack expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SK”, it said.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to go public via a direct listing, making it the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass the traditional route of listing shares through an initial public offering.

A direct listing is a cheaper way of becoming a public company as the process requires fewer investment banks and therefore lower fees.

In a direct listing, however, a company does not sell any new shares to raise money. Instead, it gives existing shareholders the opportunity to cash out.

Slack is the latest in a string of high-profile technology companies looking to go public this year. Lyft Inc, Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications have completed IPOs so far in 2019.

The company is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing, Reuters had previously reported. Some early investors and employees have been selling the stock at around $28, valuing the company close to $17 billion, Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge, a brokerage company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Slack set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Its competitors include Microsoft Teams, a free chat add-on for Microsoft’s Office365 users.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s decision to make it easier for residents of rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport is meant to test Ukraine’s new leader and the West should not recognize the documents, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the order on facilitating passports on Wednesday, three days after comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Linas Linkevicius, whose own country also has strained relations with Moscow, told Reuters in an interview that the West should consider imposing new sanctions on Russia.

“This is a blatant violation of international law. And basically also a kind of test to the new (Ukrainian) leadership, which is also a usual game,” Linkevicius said.

“The least we can do (is) we shouldn’t recognize these passports. How to do that technically, it’s another issue to discuss. Also (we need) to look at additional sanctions,” said Linkevicius, whose small Baltic nation is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for armed separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Some 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict despite a notional ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015.

Linkevicius, who in Kiev on Friday became the first minister of an EU country since Ukraine’s election to meet President-elect Zelenskiy, said they had discussed the passport issue.

Zelenskiy also raised the possibility of resetting the Minsk ceasefire agreement without giving any concessions to Russia, Linkevicius said.

“DANGEROUS CANCER” OF GRAFT

The minister urged Zelenskiy to deliver on his electoral promise of tackling corruption, which he described as the “most dangerous cancer” facing Ukraine, which hopes one day to join the EU.

Last month, Lithuania’s own relations with Russia came under renewed strain after a Vilnius court found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov, in absentia, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in a 1991 crackdown against Lithuania’s pro-independence movement.

Russia branded the verdict “extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative” and opened a probe into the judges involved.

Linkevicius accused Russia of seeking to politicize the judicial process by trying to take revenge on the judges, adding: “This is lamentable.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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A Cook County judge recently called out embattled State Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report — but dropping similar charges against embattled “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.

Foxx has faced intense criticism over her office’s decision to drop a 16-count indictment against Smollett, just weeks after bringing the charges against the high-profile TV star. Foxx’s deal with Smollett, which did not require him to admit guilt, drew ire from the public, the city’s top cop and the former mayor who called it a “whitewash of justice.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHICAGO PROSECUTOR KIM FOXX CHIDED BY NATIONAL ATTORNEYS GROUPS AFTER JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED 

Cook County Judge Marc Martin, who was presiding over an unrelated case, chastised Foxx and her office for creating a situation where anyone charged with filing a false report would expect the same leniency her office afforded Smollett.

Candace Clark, 21, is facing one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors accused her of giving a friend access to her bank account and then telling authorities the money had been stolen. She denies the charges and claims she’s the victim of Foxx’s double standard — something the judge weighed in on.

“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good. And this smells, big time,” Martin said to prosecutors during a recent hearing, Fox 32 reported. “I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”

The judge continued, “There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown. It’s not right. And (if) I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. (If the) press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February but continued to oversee the investigation through text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats.

The text messages revealed Foxx called Smollett a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” They also show she cautioned Magats about throwing the book at Smollett.

“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.

“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with four women, three of whom were underage.

KIM FOXX’S CHIEF ETHICS OFFICER RESIGNS FOLLOWING SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY

President Trump said last month he asked for a federal review of Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. He also called the actor “an absolute embarrassment to our country.”

The Smollett case garnered national attention and threatened to tear Chicago apart. It pit the police department and mayor against prosecutors and underscored the idea that wealthy people are somehow above the law.

Smollett told police he was attacked on Jan. 29 around 2 a.m. as he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. He said two masked men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, beat him and tied a rope around his neck. He claimed they shouted, “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

CLICK HERE FOF THE FOX NEWS APP

After an intense investigation, police said Smollett staged the entire incident to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett has strongly denied the accusations.

Source: Fox News National

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