Amid Hollywood's aggressive campaign to cover up for alleged hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett is a simple fact. Even if the actor and noted liar checks off a laundry list of intersectional check boxes, he's still a powerful celebrity. If we want to talk about such things as "privilege," he's got it more than most Americans.

In true Chicago fashion, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dropped all the 16 charges brought against the "Empire" actor by a grand jury. Smollett's attorney says that his record has been wiped clean. In no way is this so. He will always be known as the liar he is, who tried so hard to impugn the character of his fellow Americans.

Smollett manipulated of a legacy of homophobic and racist pain to further his personal career. And that isn't even the worst part of this story. If you haven't been following the Smollett story since his arrest, then you've missed the worst of it. It's a saga about the privilege of celebrity and social connections, something that those brainwashed by ideas of intersectionality would never understand.

Acting on behalf of the Smollett camp, attorney Tina Tchen reached out to Foxx after Smollett's arrest to get her to drop the case and punt it over to the FBI. Crooked fixers masquerading as lawyers make immoral requests all the time, but Tchen is no mere Michael Cohen. She's BFF's with Rahm Emmanuel's wife and former chief of staff for none other than First Lady Michelle Obama. Not only did Foxx attempt to comply with this request, lobbying Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to drop the case, but she and Tchen began their machinations weeks before formal charges were even filed against Smollett. In essence, Foxx worked overtime to corrupt a criminal investigation, setting the stage for higher-ups to give Smollett a pass nearly a fortnight before she officially " recused" herself. Foxx's meddling perturbed the police so badly that the police union's president notified the Justice Department to investigate her conduct.

More than four weeks elapsed between the night Smollett alleged that two MAGA-hatted Trump supporters attacked him — that's backwoods Chicago for you! — and the day of his arrest. In January and February of this year, as police spent time investigating Smollett's hoax, there were 44 homicides, 214 shootings, and 253 shooting victims in the city of Chicago. In the specific interval of time between Smollett's hoax and arrest, 20 people in Chicago were murdered. That was time the police could have spent protecting Dejon Irving, a 1-year-old black boy shot in the head by a Chicago gang member, or Ninaa Edwards, who died at the hands of fatal domestic violence. Instead, thanks to Smollett's lies, law enforcement spent that time investigating a person who didn't even exist.

To make matters worse, the overwhelming majority of Chicago's homicide victims are black. In the past 365 days, nearly 60 percent of victims were black, more than 8-in-10 were men, and almost all were young. You want to bet that any of those victims' families can get the Obama bros to phone up Foxx to rig the law for them? I doubt it.

Smollett put people in danger with his lies, but Foxx's culpability is even greater. The criminal justice system exists as much to punish individual criminals as it does to deter potential ones, and by setting the stage for Smollett to escape justice, Foxx is not only encouraging future hoaxers but corroding the rights of actual victims to be believed.

"After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett's volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution," the Cook County State's Attorney Office announced.

Say what you will about race, religion, sexuality, gender, or any of the demographic categories worshiped by the social justice coalition. No privilege triumphs over celebrity, and Jussie Smollett surely knew that from the start.