A federal lawsuit has been brought by Chicago journalist William J. Kelly against Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Superintendent David Brown of the Chicago Police Department. After Kelly’s press credentials were suspended, the complaint was filed.
Kelly claimed that his First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by Lightfoot and Brown.
“They have done this for the most cynical and contemptible reason that can be imagined, to prevent Lightfoot from being questioned about their failures in the performance of the public offices they currently occupy.”
Since she is running for re-election and wants to avoid having her poor record as mayor of Chicago exposed and attacked in the public, Lightfoot is fervently trying to stop anyone from challenging her about her numerous mistakes in office or about the false claims she makes at press conferences.
Lightfoot has instructed Brown to revoke Kelly’s press credentials from the City of Chicago, preventing Kelly from attending any more of her press conferences. Kelly, in his capacity as a reporter and journalist, has caused Lightfoot great embarrassment by asking the difficult and embarrassing questions about her obvious failure as mayor, and because this has and would continue to hurt her chances of being reelected.
Kelly claimed that as a result of Lightfoot’s orders, a police officer working for Lightfoot’s security team of 70 people fabricated a claim that Kelly had run into him on July 19, 2022. On August 8, 2022, Brown subsequently revoked Kelly’s press credentials using this fake claim as justification. In actuality, Kelly videotaped the whole occasion where the supposed bump occurred, and this footage demonstrates that no such thing occurred.
He can be heard in an earlier audio following Lightfoot after she sidestepped his query at a news conference. He was violently stopped by her staff. The journalist could be seen screaming “Don’t touch me” to Lightfoot’s staff in video shared by The Daily Caller. The employees said they didn’t touch Kelly. This interaction happened on July 19.
