My full statement from today's announcement regarding Eddie Johnson. pic.twitter.com/7eMHyYm6eN
— Archived: Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@mayorlightfoot) December 2, 2019
Johnson attained national notoriety when he joined the national chorus calling for Smollett to be charged for allegedly lying about being the victim of a homophobic and racist beatdown in January. Johnson even appeared on national TV news programs, including “Good Morning America,” in an effort to dismantle Smollet’s version of the events.
Smollett remains under intense scrutiny as he was fired from “Empire,” charged with 16 felonies (which have since been dropped) and sued by the city of Chicago for $130,000. Moreover, a special prosecutor has been appointed to see if new charges against Smollett are warranted.
In a statement, Lightfoot said Johnson deliberately misled her and the public and is no longer qualified to lead one of the largest police forces in the country.
“He was not caught off guard, and he had plenty of time to choose his words, and the choice he made was to communicate a narrative replete with false statements, all seemingly intended to hide the true nature of his conduct from the evening before,” she said.
“Even when I challenged him about the narrative that he shared with me, he maintained that he was telling the truth. I now know definitively that he was not,” she said.
Lightfoot added that, had Johnson told her the truth in the beginning, that he would have been terminated immediately after the October incident.
This decision comes about a month after she and Johnson had jointly announced he would retire as superintendent at the end of the year.
Click to watch Lightfoot’s announcement.
