Chicago mayor accused Illinois AG of 'cheap political shot' over police consent decree, texts show
CHICAGO — After Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot downplayed her administration’s slow implementation of police reforms during a speech in 2020, a lawyer for the Illinois attorney general responded in court by criticizing the city’s handling of the consent decree.
Lightfoot fired back by texting Attorney General Kwame Raoul directly that his office took a “cheap political shot” by questioning her administration’s handling of police reforms instead of calling her first personally to discuss it.
“Kwame, do you really want (a) public fight with me over the consent decree? Your flak’s comments today in court were way over the line. You have never once engaged with me over the consent decree, so this is shameful,” Lightfoot texted Raoul. “It was a cheap political shot that I would have thought was beneath you, but now I know the terms of engagement.”
The last phrase is one the mayor also used The messages wereother officials names from “jackass” to “dumb, dumb person of color,” while also for sending her memos that she said might later become public.
