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Jussie Smollett walked out of a Chicago courtroom last week an innocent man. In exchange for a forfeited $10,000 bond, prosecutors dropped 16 charges alleging that the “Empire” actor had staged a fake hate crime and then lied to police about it.

Smollett’s record will be expunged, and in the eyes of the justice system, it will be as though it never happened.

Yet the judicial outcome did nothing to resolve the controversy over the case. Prosecutors defended the decision as the product of criminal justice reform, but to many observers, it reeked of celebrity privilege. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel denounced the move as a “whitewash,” and the police union and President Trump called for a federal probe.

The move has left Hollywood baffled. Smollett’s co-stars celebrated on social media, but the broader community may not be so welcoming. Onstage at last week’s GLAAD Media Awards, actor Sean Hayes...

Things took an emotional turn on the set of CNN’s “New Day” Tuesday morning. Co-host Alisyn Camerota conducted a lengthy interview with Calvin and Sheila Murphy, whose son, Etienne was killed in Syria during a “vehicle rollover incident” in May. From the moment things got going, Sheila Murphy struggled to hold back tears as she recalled her son’s life. “Every day is hard. Every day it gets worse. It doesn’t’ get better. It gets worse because I’m just there looking for my child to come through the door,” she said. “The worst thing I’ve ever...

President Trump has claimed that he alone — not Barack Obama or other past presidents — has called “virtually” all families of U.S. soldiers who have died in service since Trump took office in January.

But Gold Star families have since lashed out at Trump over his false claims about past presidents, recalling how they were comforted by Obama and former President George W. Bush as they grieved. Trump was soon forced to walk back what Obama aides called an “outrageous lie,” admitting that his predecessor “probably sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know.”

But now some...