Former inspector general clears Emanuel in Laquan McDonald shooting

As ex-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel waits for a confirmation vote to be U.S. ambassador to Japan, former Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson has cleared Emanuel of wrongdoing in his handling of the Laquan McDonald police shooting videos.

Emanuel's return to government has "resurrected questions" about Emanuel's responsibility for the Chicago Police Department and whether "he engaged in a 'cover-up' of the shooting by keeping the police body-worn camera videos from the public," Ferguson said in a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat. The Chicago Sun-Times obtained a copy of the letter.

Ferguson wrote that while the questions are "appropriate" by those opposing his nomination, "they are not fair, because they are not grounded in fact, because the facts simply do not exist."

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