Perspective: What Donald Trump’s and Jesse Smollett’s legal dramas say about the criminal justice system
By Paul Butler Paul Butler Bio March 29 at 12:15 AM About US is an initiative by The Washington Post to explore issues of identity in the United States. Sign up for the newsletter.
Trump frequently said he had made a mistake in appointing Jeff Sessions as attorney general, because Sessions had failed to protect him from the Russia investigation. When Trump finally ran Sessions out of the Justice Department, he did not repeat that mistake. Smollett, who is African American and gay, does not share Trump’s extreme privileges. Indeed at the start of Smollett’s case, prosecutors threw the book at him, as if he were just a regular black defendant. The 16 felony charges were over the top, but studies show that African Americans are frequently prosecuted on more serious charges than whites for the same conduct.
Like President Trump, Smollett claimed complete vindication. His lawyers denied that any kind of deal had been made. Kim Foxx, the Cook County state’s attorney, said that defendants such as Smollett who have no record and are charged with minor crimes are eligible to have charges dismissed. But veteran courthouse observers could not recall any case in which a defendant got such a deal so quickly.
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