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House fails to override Trump’s veto of measure to terminate national emergency on border

The House of Representatives failed to pass a resolution on Tuesday that would override President Trump’s first veto and let stand his declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border.

The House voted 248-181 in favor of overriding the president’s veto and doing away with Trump’s emergency declaration – falling 38 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass through the lower chamber or Congress. The measure passed mainly on party line with only 14Republicans voting in favor of the veto override.

Trump's emergency declaration drew unanimous opposition from congressional Democrats and opposition from some Republicans, especially in the Senate , where lawmakers objected that he was abusing presidential powers.

The Pentagon sent lawmakers a list last week of hundreds of military construction projects that might be cut to pay for barrier work. Though the list was tentative, Democrats were asserting that GOP lawmakers were endangering local bases to pay for the wall.

Congress, to which the Constitution assigned control over spending, voted weeks ago to provide less than $1.4 billion for barriers. Opponents warned that besides usurping Congress' role in making spending decisions, Trump was inviting future Democratic presidents to circumvent lawmakers by declaring emergencies to finance their own favored initiatives.

Trump supporters said he was simply acting under a 1976 law that lets presidents declare national emergencies. Trump's declaration was the 60th presidential emergency under that statute, but the first aimed at spending that Congress explicitly denied, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks the law.

Fox News Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Chicago sues actor Jussie Smollett for police costs

Actor Jussie Smollett leaves court after charges against him were dropped by state prosecutors in Chicago
FILE PHOTO: Actor Jussie Smollett leaves court after charges against him were dropped by state prosecutors in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski

April 11, 2019

(Reuters) – The city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Jussie Smollett, saying the actor owes it over $130,000 for police costs incurred in the investigation of a hate crime that authorities allege was phony, according to legal documents.

The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court over two weeks after prosecutors in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed all criminal charges against the “Empire” actor.

Chicago officials previously said they would sue Smollett after he refused a demand by the city for $130,000 to cover police overtime costs.

The actor’s criminal defense attorney, Mark Geragos, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Smollett, 36, who is black and gay, ignited a firestorm on social media by telling police on Jan. 29 that two apparent supporters of President Donald Trump struck him, put a noose around his neck and poured bleach over him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs on a Chicago street.

After weeks of investigation, Chicago police determined that Smollett cooked up the scheme — in which they allege he hired two brothers to pose as his attackers — because he was dissatisfied with his salary on “Empire.”

Smollett, best known for his role on the Twentieth Century Fox Television hip-hop drama, has said he has always been truthful about the incident.

He was charged in February with staging the incident and filing a false police report.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Privacy group sues for public release of Mueller probe report

U.S. Attorney General William Barr's signature is seen on his letter to lawmakers about the submission of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report is seen in Washington
U.S. Attorney General William Barr's signature is seen on a copy of his letter to U.S. lawmakers stating that the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been concluded and that Mueller has submitted his report to the Attorney General in Washington, U.S. March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

March 23, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. civil liberties privacy group has filed a lawsuit seeking the public release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center brought the Freedom of Information Act suit against the Department of Justice, the group said in an announcement posted on its website on Friday.

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Italy’s Salvini urges La Scala to snub Saudi cash

FILE PHOTO: People stand in front of the La Scala opera house during the opening of the 2017-2018 opera season in Milan
FILE PHOTO: People stand in front of the La Scala opera house during the opening of the 2017-2018 opera season in Milan, Italy December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo

March 11, 2019

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, urged Milan’s La Scala opera house on Monday to reject an offer from Saudi Arabia to pump funds into the theater.

The Saudi culture ministry has offered a five-year partnership deal with La Scala worth 15 million euros ($17 million).

The proposal has set off a furious row, with human rights groups and some politicians arguing that one of Italy’s most prestigious cultural institutions should shun money from Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative Muslim kingdom accused of repeated rights abuses.

Salvini told reporters he did not want the partnership to go ahead.

“I would prefer for some people not to be there and for La Scala to be free, independent and autonomous,” he said. “If the Swiss want to invest in La Scala, we would not have a problem.”

It is the second time this year that Salvini, who heads the far-right League party, has taken aim at Saudi Arabia.

In January he condemned as “disgusting” restrictions imposed on women hoping to see the final of the Italian Supercoppa, which was staged at the start of the year in Saudi.

The La Scala board is due to discuss the Saudi proposal at a meeting on March 18.

($1 = 0.8900 euros)

(Reporting by Sara Rossi; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Mueller Report Contains Claim Russia Taped Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky Having Phone Sex

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Belgium apologizes for colonial-era abduction of mixed-race children

Belgium's PM Michel reacts after delivering a speech at a plenary session of the Belgian Parliament in Brussels
Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel reacts after delivering a speech at a plenary session of the Belgian Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

April 4, 2019

By Giulia Paravicini

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium apologized on Thursday for kidnapping thousands of mixed-race children from Congo between 1959 and 1962, in a move to address the legacy of its often brutal 80 years of African colonization.

The apology was the first time Belgium has officially acknowledged responsibility for the policy of segregation under which ‘metis’ children were abducted from Congo and put in schools and orphanages in Belgium run by the Catholic Church.

“In the name of the federal government, I present my apologies to the metis of the Belgian colonial era and their families for the injustices and the sufferings they have endured,” Prime Minister Charles Michel told Parliament as dozens of former abductees looked on.

“I hope that this solemn moment will be an additional step toward an awareness and knowledge of this part of our national history.”

Belgium’s colonial-era segregation laws banned interracial marriage, and children born from a Congolese mother and Belgian father were considered to represent the abuse of those laws and shipped away.

Last year parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the government to apologize and recognize the role played by Belgium and the Catholic Church during its colonial occupation of Burundi, Congo and Rwanda.

Belgium’s rule in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo was particularly cruel, especially between 1885 and 1908, when the country, then called the Congo Free State, was run as a private fiefdom by King Leopold II.

Slave labor to develop vast rubber reserves, maiming and torture cost the lives of between 10 million and 15 million people.

Many in Belgium are unaware of its complicated past, and last February a U.N. Security Council panel of experts said in a report that racial discrimination was “endemic” in Belgium’s institutions.

In December, Belgium reopened its Africa Museum after five years of renovations aimed at turning the institution from a pro-colonial exhibition into one critical of colonial rule.

Critics say more still needs to be done, but Thursday’s apology was an important step forward for some.

“I am very moved,” said metis Jeannot Cardinael who was present in parliament. “It is a recognition of what the Belgian state has done to us, in collaboration with the Church. They took away a part of our identity and now they admit that mistake.”

(Editing by Edward McAllister; editing by John Stonestreet)

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Populists and Traditionalists Are Battling in Both Parties

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WASHINGTON -- Dick Cheney, the former vice president, made just about the nastiest crack a Republican could offer about President Trump's foreign policy when he said it "looks a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan."

Obviously, the comparison is flawed. But say this much for Cheney: He's the rare Republican who isn't intimidated by Trump these days. Cheney made a string of similarly blistering comments at a supposedly off-the-record conversation with Vice President Pence at a gathering in Sea Island, Georgia, last weekend hosted by the American Enterprise Institute.

Cheney's remarks tell us that we are experiencing what may be a political realignment in America, in which some of our political labels don't work very well. There's a populist wing in both parties, with Trump and some progressive Democrats expressing broadly similar concerns about America's overextension in the world and the unfairness of the existing global order to working people.

There's a traditionalist wing in both parties, too, which supports the old Cheney-esque American-led world order and its network of alliances and trade agreements. This traditionalist approach was embodied in the shared invitation this week by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to address a joint session of Congress.

There's a world of difference, to be sure, between Trump's bullying, rich-guy version of populism and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' empathetic, progressive version. Similarly, Pelosi's version of internationalism is less defense-oriented and hawkish than McConnell's. But politics is confusing these days partly because the usual left-right spectrum doesn't always apply. Is free trade liberal or conservative? How about internationalism? What about privacy protection?

American politics has always been more personality-driven than ideological, and when we think of eras, they're usually defined by presidents. George Washington personified the Federalist Era; Andrew Jackson defined a freewheeling Democratic Party assault on the elites; Abraham Lincoln created the modern Republican Party in the Civil War; and Theodore Roosevelt recast it in the Progressive Era; Franklin Roosevelt created a new Democratic coalition; and Reagan framed a new Republican one.

Is Trump such a transitional figure? I doubt it. He seems more an emblem of our current political disorder than the architect of a new political alignment. But he's a harbinger of change in our party system.

Trump already has led one of the most successful insurgencies in American politics. He destroyed the existing Republican establishment, savaging the GOP's field of presidential candidates in 2016. His defiant, carnival-barker politics of resentment was on display this month at the CPAC convention. It was a bizarre, idiosyncratic performance, but it clearly enthralled his audience. Trump owns what's left of the party he wrecked.

Democrats these days can seem just as frightened as Republicans by a party base that's in ferment. An example is former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, an ex-entrepreneur who created a bipartisan base in his home state. Hickenlooper is the embodiment of a moderate Democrat. But he verged on incoherence last week on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when host Joe Scarborough asked him if he was a "socialist" or "capitalist." Watching him, it seemed possible that Democrats are as jittery about offending Sanders supporters as Republicans are of crossing Trump.

Maybe Sanders has the passion and progressive appeal to make "democratic socialism" a winning strategy for 2020. He's undeniably appealing to the Democratic base; polls show him gaining steadily over the past two months, while most of the rest of the field has been treading water.

But I'll be very surprised if Sanders can make it to the White House. The Democrat who can beat Trump is more likely to be a large but also reassuring personality, acceptable to blue-collar Democrats and also exciting to younger voters -- a more youthful version of Joe Biden, perhaps. People who occupy that space (at least on my mental map) include Sen. Michael Bennett; Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Seth Moulton and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

Political systems can be like scientific theories. Sometimes there emerge so many anomalous elements that don't fit the existing structure that the theory collapses, and a new one arises. In science, that means, for example, that the theory that the sun revolves around the earth loses its explanatory power, and evidence proves the opposite is the case. In politics, new parties emerge, or the existing ones develop new identities.

We may be entering such a period. The definition of a winning Democrat may be that, in response to Trump's rambling circus of self-aggrandizement, he or she could create a genuinely coherent new political order.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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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