https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-26-at-3.45.43-PM.png?w=1100&ssl=1

Smollett trumps Emanuel for both Obamas, I suppose.

Emanuel was Obama’s Chief of Staff for 2 years; I don’t think they were particularly chummy, but they didn’t have a toxic split when Rahm left to become mayor.
Tina Tchen, the fixer, was Michelle’s former top aide.

Did Barack know that his wife’s minions were going to blind-side his former staffer, or did she do it on her own?
What are the ramifications of either situation?

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2019/03/30/jussie-smollett-loses-naacp-image-award/amp/

I too work in/with the NYS court system. And, while Illinois is not NYS, I can’t wrap my brain around the 16 felony indictments being resolved in the fashion done with Smollett. It boggles the mind.

Like you said, no diversion program lets a defendant just walk away with no formal admission. And then, in diversion programs (I’m thinking of something along the lines of Felony Treatment/Drug Court as an example) punishment is deferred pending success in the program.

The clips about Emanuel are different because the stories were almost entirely different in details and tone. Maybe they were written by different people at AP and they were pulled and published without reworking. Maybe there were 2 people at WTHR writing off the same AP report, 9 hours apart.
Support for two separate stories is given by the difference in URLs (unlike the example from Neo’s post a couple of days ago about the veto override, where she changed the headline but the URL stayed the same).

I just thought it was curious.
(The clips about Trump are not in either story; I don’t know why Google searches do that.)

https://www.google.com/search?q=emanuel+backtracks+smollett&oq=emanuel+backtracks+smollett&aqs=chrome..69i57.7241j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Smollett case tests relationship between police, prosecutors – National …
https://www.wthr.com/…/smollett-case-tests-relationship-between-police-prosecutors
3 hours ago – Futterman questioned Emanuel’s reaction to Smollett’s case, saying the mayor … Trump backtracks on call to gut $300M Great Lakes program.

Upsides, downsides for Smollett, city in looming fines fight – National …
https://www.wthr.com/article/upsides-downsides-smollett-city-looming-fines-fight
12 hours ago – Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has said the false claims by Smollett damaged the … Trump backtracks on call to gut $300M Great Lakes program.

A brief follow-up to my reply to Manju above, about dismissing cases after indictment (and a few items contra the IPBA letter’s assertions).

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/jussie-smollett-case-charges-dropped-records-sealed-court/
Saturday, March 30, 2019

“It’s not unusual for prosecutors to spot critical flaws in a case after charges are filed — alibis emerge, witnesses turn out to be unreliable, investigations can be tainted — but Foxx and her deputies, not to mention the CPD, were adamant that was not the case.”

I and plenty of other people have long been distrustful of jailhouse snitches who lie to get favors. Or of people accused of crimes (not process “crimes” like borderline lying to the FBI that isn’t even lying, but real crimes) who rat on the other perp in order to get off or to get a light sentence. One must take their testimony with a grain of salt, but not discredit it totally particularly when there is other evidence.

There apparently was plenty of corroborating evidence here, and most definitely, unequivocally, enough of it to go to trial under any normal circumstance.

That is a far cry—a far far far cry—from starting an inquiry and getting people on process crimes related only to that inquiry and that interrogation, and squeezing them for the purpose of getting them to rat on a president. The potential for abuse is extraordinarily high there and the target is not a criminal, it is the elected president of the US. That is a purely political act as well, because a president cannot be criminally tried while in office. He can only be impeached, which is a political act of the legislature.

What’s more, I haven’t seen a big push for the idea that Smollett should have been tried. Most people weren’t asking for that. They don’t think, however, he should have been essentially let off and not have to admit guilt. In particular this is galling because they apparently had an excellent case against him and his crime was actually a very serious one.