“My d*** is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest d*** in Chicago,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot allegedly said, tearing into government staffers during a vulgar diatribe, according to a scathing new lawsuit.
Her jarring tirade allegedly came during a Zoom call last October in which she lashed out at lawyers for the Chicago Park District for supporting a proposal to temporarily display a Christopher Columbus statue during the Christopher Columbus Day parade in the city.
LORI LIGHTFOOT ADDED TO LAWSUIT OVER COLUMBUS STATUE
“You d***s, what the f*** were you thinking? You make some kind of secret agreement with Italians, what you are doing, you are out there measuring your d***s with the Italians seeing whose got the biggest d***, you are out there stroking your d***s over the Columbus statue, I am trying to keep Chicago Police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot,” she said, per the lawsuit. “Where did you go to law school? Did you even go to law school? Do you even have a law license?”
The lawsuit was filed by George Smyrniotis, the former deputy general counsel for the Chicago Park District, in the Circuit Court of Cook County on Tuesday. Smyrniotis was involved in the statue wangling because the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans was suing the park district, demanding the statue return to its display in Little Italy.
Shortly before the annual Christopher Columbus Day parade, a representative from the JCCIA asked Smyrniotis about cutting a deal to display the statue temporarily during the parade. Smyrniotis took the proposal to Timothy King, General Counsel for the Chicago Park District, who approved it.
Lightfoot fumed when she discovered this and initiated a Zoom call with King and Smyrniotis in response. Other members of the Chicago Park District and city government were also involved in the call, according to the lawsuit. Smyrniotis’s lawyers argued that he was not working for Lightfoot on the statue controversy and noted that Chicago Park District is an independent municipal entity. He is suing Lightfoot and the City of Chicago for over $50,000 in damages to his reputation from the incident he claims forced him to resign on Feb. 2, 2022.
“The City has not yet been served with a complaint and will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation,” the Chicago Department of Law said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Ultimately, the statue was not displayed during the parade, in part because Lightfoot threatened to pull the permit for the parade if it was.
The JCCIA, which is currently suing both the city and the Park District over the Christopher Columbus statue feud, said the allegations in the lawsuit were troubling but cautioned they were merely accusations.
“It is incredibly offensive to see anything like that in writing, even though at this point these are allegations and not confirmed statements. However, if you look up bigotry and racism, then look at those alleged statements, you be the judge,” Ron Onesti, president of the JCCIA, told the Washington Examiner.
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The statue was taken down during the summer protests of 2020 that were triggered by the death of George Floyd. Activists called for the statue’s removal due to Columbus’s abuse of Native Americans. Lightfoot was initially hesitant to remove the statue but ultimately caved to pressure amid concerns about violence.
Onesti previously told the Washington Examiner that Lightfoot reassured the JCCIA that the statue’s removal would only be temporary. The JCCIA’c lawsuit against the park district, which added Lightfoot as a defendant in January alleges the Chicago Park District broke its agreement with them from 1973. Members of the group paid to fix up the statue in exchange for a pledge from the district not to alter it without the JCCIA’s consent.
