“I think that she makes the decisions that she believes are in the best interests of the office,” Preckwinkle said of Foxx, her former chief of staff.
Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle defended her political protégé on Tuesday amid allegations that State’s Attorney Kim Foxx acted inappropriately when she tried to persuade Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to transfer the investigation of Jussie Smollett’s claim of being the target of a hate crime to the FBI.
“Kim Foxx was my chief of staff for… a little more than two years. She ran for and was elected state’s attorney. I’m very grateful for the good work that she’s done there,” Preckwinkle told an unrelated news conference on the West Side.
“I think that she makes the decisions that she believes are in the best interests of the office.”
The Fraternal Order of Police has demanded a federal investigation of Foxx’s behavior in the Smollett case.
Foxx’s call to Johnson came after an influential supporter of the “Empire” actor reached out to Foxx personally: Tina Tchen, a Chicago attorney and former chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama, according to emails and text messages provided by Foxx to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a public records request.
Prekwinkle was asked again whether she believe it was appropriate for Foxx to ask the Chicago Police Department to give up the case and transfer the investigation to the FBI at a time when Smollett was considered the victim of a hate crime, not a suspect in a hoax.
