In a round of media interviews Wednesday, including with the Chicago Tribune, Foxx defended the decision signed off on by her first assistant, Joseph Magats. She said that many of the thousands of similar, nonviolent felony cases her office handles each year are disposed of by alternative means and noted that Smollett’s celebrity status should not earn him harsher treatment. Both Foxx and Magats said their evidence was solid and that they could have won at trial. But Foxx’s explanations did little to quell the uproar, and her public relations team seemed to be unprepared for the intense public blowback.