(HOOD RAT AT WORK) – Chicago Mayor Blocks ICE from Police Database Before Raids

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By Joshua Caplan

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said Wednesday that the Windy City has made moves to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from accessing its police databases amid reports of potential raids in more than 10 major U.S. cities slated for Sunday.

“They will not team up with ICE to detain any resident. We have also cut off ICE access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent,” Lightfoot said. “Chicago is and will always be a welcoming city that will never tolerate ICE tearing our families apart.”

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In a statement to the Chicago Tribune, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the city’s Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) database will not be available to ICE officials, though several federal government agencies will still have access.

“All other federal agencies still have access to these systems, as sharing this information is crucial to active criminal investigations in which we are partnering with federal agencies along with intelligence sharing functions that are vital to national homeland security functions,” Guglielmi stated.

Appearing Sunday on CBS News, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director said ICE is prepared to remove approximately one million illegal aliens with final orders for deportation. “[ICE agents are] ready to just perform their mission which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders,” he said“They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders. Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort or not is really just information kept within ICE.”

Sunday’s expected raid will target at least 2,000 illegal residents.

Last month, President Donald Trump called off planned raids to deport roughly 2,000 illegal aliens with final deportation orders after details of the operation were leaked to the Washington Post.

Thomas Homan, the former Director of ICE, suggested Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan was responsible for the leak, which prompted the operation’s delay.

A Harvard/Harris survey shows a majority of Americans back plans to deport illegal aliens if Congress fails to act. More than 8-in-10 Republican voters support the move, while and more than 5-in-10 swing voters agree with it.

The LAST RECORDS: Chicago Police Department Releases Jussie Smollett Investigation Files Before Case Is Sealed

By EMILY ZANOTTI

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 14: Jussie Smollett attends the 2018 Fox Network Upfront at Wollman Rink, Central Park on May 14, 2018 in New York City.

Wednesday morning, the Chicago Police Department fulfilled a Freedom of Information Act request from WGN News and CWB Chicago, and released complete but redacted files from the Jussie Smollett investigation — the last such documents that can be expected, according to CPD’s spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi.

The documents, first posted by CWB, show the progression of a police investigation that began on January 29th, when Smollett and his friend summoned Chicago Police to Smollett’s downtown apartment to file a police report, indicating that Smollett had been assaulted and battered while walking home from a local Subway sandwich shop.

You can find File #1 on CWB’s page here, and File #2 here. Both files are heavily redacted, and were apparently resubmitted to the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday, after the Cook County State’s Attorney dropped all charges against Smollett, apparently in anticipation of FOIA requests.

There are several items in CPD’s investigative files that have not appeared in prior reporting, including that, by late January, just days after Smollett reported the incident to Chicago Police, the police had shifted their investigation, reclassifying it from an “aggravated battery” to a “public peace violation” or false police report.

By January 31st, it appears that CPD detectives had requested surveillance footage from buildings surrounding Smollett’s residence, and had determined that it was likely Smollett had either orchestrated or fabricated the “hate crime” initially reported to police.

The files also catalog CPD’s interactions with the now-infamous Osundairo brothers — the two men Smollett allegedly hired to help him carry out the attack. CPD interviewed the Osundairo brothers several times, connecting the pair to the scene of the crime through a hot sauce bottle that one brother admitted he had filled with bleach, and then poured on Smollett during the attack. A New York Post reporter later found the hot sauce bottle while poking around the scene of the alleged crime.

The brothers also indicated that a $3500 check they’d received from Smollett was for more than just “training,” which they charged only $30 to $50 per hour for.

According to the reports, police investigators and prosecutors worked hard to keep developments of the case — particularly grand jury witnesses like the Osundairo brothers — out of the public eye, driving witnesses to and from courthouses outside of downtown Chicago, so that they could testify without triggering a media frenzy.

Perhaps most interestingly, the files show that the Chicago Police Department cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Smollett case as early as late January, as well. According to one of the files, the FBI requested — and received — a copy of a the results of a search warrant served on Smollett’s Apple iCloud account. The FBI is reportedly still conducting its own investigation into Smollett over a letter sent to Smollett at Fox Studios containing a “white powder” that turned out to be crushed Tylenol.

Although the files don’t provide much more in the way of damning evidence against Smollett, the circumstances surrounding their release are part of an interesting twist in the Smollett case. After the Cook County State’s Attorney decided to drop the 17 charges against Smollett, the court case was wiped off the books — a highly unusual move — and Smollett’s records were sealed.

According to CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, speaking to Chicago’s ABC news affiliate, Wednesday’s document release is the final release — all other documents pertinent to the investigation and case against Smollett are going under seal.

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Initially, the order delivered on Tuesday was not read to apply to city or police records. An updated order, issued Wednesday morning, now covers all records pertinent to the Smollett case.

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The Chicago Police have gone on the offensive against the prosecutor’s office following yesterday’s developments. In a tweet issued yesterday afternoon, Gugliemi took on Jussie Smollett’s proclamation of innocence, noting that “Chicago police detectives did an excellent investigation and their work was reaffirmed by an independent grand jury who brought 16 criminal counts. In our experience, innocent individuals don’t forget bond & perform community service in exchange for dropped charges.”

The Fraternal Order of Police — Chicago’s primary police union — has already delivered a request to the United States Attorney’s office in Chicago requesting that a federal investigaiton into the decision to clear Smollett of all charges.

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