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Michael Cohen asks House Democrats to help keep him out of prison

With a little less than a month to go until he is slated to report to prison, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen is asking House Democrats to help keep him out of the big house.

In a letter sent to lawmakers Thursday, Cohen's legal team said he was still sorting through documents in his personal files that might be of interest to House Democrats investigating President Trump, including emails, voice recordings, images and other documents on a hard drive.

The letter was sent to a veritable who's-who of Trump opponents, including Reps. Adam Schiff of California, Jerry Nadler of New York, Maxine Waters of California and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, all Democrats.

"To date, Mr. Cohen has located several documents that we believe have significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees," wrote the attorneys, Lanny Davis, Michael Monico and Carly Chocron.

Davis had served as then-President Bill Clinton special counsel in the 1990s, including during Clinton’s impeachment. He supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

The lawyers said if Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, has been going through the documents alone, without any help, and if he reports to prison May 6 as scheduled, he won't be able to finish reviewing the material.

COHEN CALLS TRUMP A RACIST FRAUD AT EXPLOSIVE HOUSE HEARING, SAYS TRUMP BULLIED COLLEGES NOT TO DISCLOSE GRADES

They asked the lawmakers to write letters saying that Cohen was cooperating and that "the substantial trove of new information, documents, recordings, and other evidence he can provide requires substantial time with him and ready access to him by congressional committees and staff to complete their investigations and to fulfill their oversight responsibilities."

Michael Cohen hired former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis to represent him in the criminal investigation.

Michael Cohen hired former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis to represent him in the criminal investigation. (Lanny Davis/Twitter)

If any lawmakers were to write such a letter, it could be useful if Cohen petitioned the court to delay his prison report date.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to tax evasion, fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations, already has received one short delay on medical grounds while he recovered from shoulder surgery.

In their letter to lawmakers, Cohen's lawyers said they were still holding out hope that federal prosecutors in New York not only would back another delay in the start of his prison term, but also would agree to reopen his case and advocate for a lighter sentence. He has been sentenced to a three-year term.

"It is our hope that the authorities in the Southern District of New York will consider this total picture of cooperation by Mr. Cohen, verified by your letter and the important new evidence he has made available or could make available to assist the government, and the particular facts involved here to grant Mr. Cohen a reduced term following the rules and procedures of the Southern District of New York."

Democrats, including Schiff, have signaled they've intended to keep investigating alleged collusion by the Trump campaign, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded a nearly two-year, $25 million investigation last month. Mueller found no evidence of any such collusion -- despite repeated efforts by Russia to conspire with the Trump team, according to a summary from Attorney General Bill Barr.

At a hearing this past February, Democrats questioning Cohen pushed an unproven theory that Trump, along with his family, could be compromised by the Russians. "Is it possible the whole family is conflicted or compromised with a foreign adversary in the months before the election?” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, asked Cohen. Wasserman Schultz led the committee when its emails were hacked.

“Yes,” Cohen replied.

After the hearing, House Oversight Committee Republicans referred Cohen to the Justice Department for alleged perjury, claiming he lied during sworn testimony before the panel about a number of issues including his ambitions to work in the Trump administration and contracts with foreign entities. And, a top House Democrat told Fox News that Cummings, the Democrat oversight chair, probably would make a perjury referral.

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A spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Manhattan declined to comment on the letter from Cohen's attorneys.

New York prosecutors previously advocated for a tough sentence, saying the crimes were serious and that the help Cohen had provided to ongoing investigations wasn't as valuable or as complete as Cohen had claimed.

Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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EU parliament head says Europe divided over Libya

A member of Misrata forces, under the protection of Tripoli's forces, takes his position near a military camp in Tripoli
A member of Misrata forces, under the protection of Tripoli's forces, takes his position near a military camp in Tripoli, Libya April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

April 10, 2019

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – France and Italy are divided over policy toward Libya despite the official position of EU unity stated by the bloc’s foreign policy chief, the head of the European Parliament said on Wednesday.

Parliament President Antonio Tajani, who is Italian, urged EU countries to speak with a single voice on the renewed crisis in Libya, where rival forces are fighting for control of the capital Tripoli.

He also mentioned the role of France and Britain in the overthrow of Libya’s former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, a move he said was a mistake that had generated chaos.

“We need more unity, we need to speak with only one voice as Europeans, but unfortunately Europeans are divided on this,” he told reporters.

But France and Italy both had “diverging interests,” Tajani he said.

France, which has oil assets in eastern Libya, has provided military assistance in past years to Khalifa Haftar in his eastern stronghold, Libyan and French officials say. .

Italy, the former colonial power and a big player in Libya’s oil sector, has supported the U.N.-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday the bloc was united in calling for a truce and a return to diplomacy.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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Parkland Shooting Survivor Sydney Aiello Commits Suicide Resulting From ‘Survivor’s Guilt,’ PTSD

Matt M. Miller | Contributor

Parkland shooting survivor Sydney Aiello, 19, died Sunday after committing suicide, according to police.

Aiello was reportedly suffering from “survivor’s guilt” on account of one of her very close friends being killed in the mass school shooting last winter, CBS 4 Miami reports.

Cara Aiello, Sydney’s mother, told CBS 4 that Sydney had also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, making it difficult for her to attend her college classes because of her fear of being in a classroom. She said Sydney was frequently sad but never reached out for help before killing herself. (RELATED: Here’s The Wounded Warrior’s Response To David Hogg That Is Going Viral)

Sydney’s close friend, Meadow Pollack, was one of the 17 victims of the shooting last winter.

Meadow’s brother, Hunter Pollack, tweeted Wednesday in response to Sydney’s suicide, urging Twitter users to help the Aiello family by contributing for the funeral expenses: “Beautiful Sydney with such a bright future was taken from us way too soon. My friend’s sister and someone dear to Meadow.”

Ryan Petty, father of Alaina Perry — another one of the 17 students killed in the Parkland shooting — told CBS 4 Thursday, “It breaks my heart that we’ve lost yet another student from Stoneman Douglas.” (RELATED: Parkland Students’ Anti-NRA Protest Against Publix Backfires)

“Some of the questions that need to be asked are: Do you wish you were dead and not wake up? Second question: Have you had thoughts of killing herself?” he said. “My advice to parents is to ask questions. Don’t be afraid. Don’t wait.”

Source: The Daily Caller

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Exclusive: China’s Dalian port bans Australian coal imports, sets 2019 quota – source

FILE PHOTO: A reclaimer places coal in stockpiles at the coal port in Newcastle
FILE PHOTO: A reclaimer places coal in stockpiles at the coal port in Newcastle, Australia, June 6, 2012. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo

February 21, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – Customs at China’s northern Dalian port has banned imports of Australian coal and will cap overall coal imports for 2019 through its harbours at 12 million tonnes, an official at Dalian Port Group told Reuters on Thursday.

The indefinite ban on imports from top supplier Australia, effective since the start of February, comes as major ports elsewhere in China prolong clearing times for Australian coal to at least 40 days.

Five harbours overseen by Dalian customs – Dalian, Bayuquan, Panjin, Dandong and Beiliang – will not allow Australian coal to clear through customs, said the official. Coal imports from Russia and Indonesia will not be affected.

The ports handled about 14 million tonnes of coal last year, half of which was from Australia, said Gu Meng, analyst at Orient Futures.

The Dalian official declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Dalian customs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Meng Meng, Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton; editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: OANN

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Trump, top national security officials discuss Afghanistan

President Donald Trump had an hour-long, classified meeting on Afghanistan Friday a day after a top Afghan official openly complained that the Trump administration was keeping his government in the dark about its negotiations with the Taliban.

Vice President Mike Pence, Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Trump's national security adviser John Bolton were among those who gathered in a secured room at the Pentagon called the "tank." The meeting was a classified briefing about Afghanistan, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject of the private briefing.

The Pentagon has been developing plans to withdraw as many as half of the 14,000 troops still in Afghanistan. Pat Shanahan, the recently installed acting secretary of defense, said he has no orders to reduce the U.S. troop presence, although officials say that is at the top of the Taliban's list of demands in exploratory peace negotiations.

U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, the administration's main negotiator with the Taliban, recently concluded a 13-day session with leaders of the insurgent group to find a way to end the 17-year war.

Khalilzad said the two sides reached two "draft agreements" covering the withdrawal of U.S. troops and guarantees that Afghanistan would not revert to a haven for terrorists. But he was unable to persuade the Taliban to launch talks with the Afghan government.

The two sides seem to be in agreement about the withdrawal of American forces, but divided over the timeline and whether a residual force would remain.

Taliban officials have told The Associated Press that the insurgents want a full withdrawal within three to five months, but that U.S. officials say it will take 18 months to two years. The Americans are likely to insist on a residual U.S. force to guard the American embassy and other diplomatic facilities, and may press for a counterterrorism force as well.

Afghanistan's national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib said he visited Washington on Thursday to publicly complain that the Trump administration has alienated the Afghan government, legitimized the militant network and is crafting a deal that will never lead to peace. His blunt remarks prompted a scolding from State Department officials.

Mohib, the former Afghan ambassador to the United States, said talks about withdrawing troops should be conducted with the Afghan government, which has a bilateral security agreement with the U.S. He also suggested that the negotiations conducted by Khalilzad, a veteran American diplomat who was born in Afghanistan, are clouded by Khalilzad's political ambitions to lead his native country.

___

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Powwow plans focus on missing, murdered Native women

A two-day powwow that represents one of the largest annual gatherings of indigenous people in the United States begins Friday in New Mexico, where organizers say they want to build awareness this year around the deaths and disappearances of Native American women.

Melonie Mathews, whose family founded the Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque, says organizers are dedicating the Miss Indian World Pageant to the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women — which has become the focus in the past year of state and federal legislation, and marches and demonstrations.

The pageant is a marquis event tied to the powwow, which has grown over the past three decades to include a parade, contemporary music venue and market.

Some 3,000 singers and dancers, and 800 artisans are expected to participate.

Source: Fox News National

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Slain teen's mother joins supporters at vigil

The mother of a black teenager shot and killed by a white police officer outside Pittsburgh told supporters at a vigil that she was glad to see her son's life celebrated at a place that meant so much to him.

Michelle Kenney, mother of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II, joined friends of supporters at a vigil Sunday afternoon at the basketball court in the Hawkins Village housing complex in Rankin, where she lives.

"This was definitely his spot right here," Kenney said. "If you was looking for Antwon, you'd find him on the basketball court."

Supporters, she said, put the event together while she was sleeping.

"I haven't slept in I don't know how long," she said. "And after the verdict was read, I literally went home and I collapsed."

Several dozen people brought red roses, which they placed on the court, as well as purple ribbons, white flowers and white candles. A poem written by Rose was read, and participants sang "What side are you on my people? What side are you on?" They then joined their hands in prayer.

"We honor the life of this young man...and I pray to God that the young black men in this circle are viewed as young men," said Nathaniel Carter, a North Braddock resident from Amplify Church who was one of the men leading the vigil.

Former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld had been charged with homicide in the shooting of Rose last summer. A jury acquitted him after less than four hours of deliberation. Hours after the verdict, gunshots were fired into the law office of his attorney, and the following day hundreds marched in Pittsburgh to protest the outcome of the case.

A prayer vigil scheduled Sunday night at a church in Pittsburgh's Hill District was to include prayers and singing, according to a flyer sent by organizers.

Source: Fox News National

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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.

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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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