CABRERA: New details this morning on how things went down behind the scenes leading up to the dismissal of the case against Actor Jussie Smollett. CNN obtained text messages that raise more questions about the prosecutor's involvement in the case after she publicly recused herself. CNN's Nick Watt is in Los Angeles with the latest. Nick, what did you find?</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, first of all, these messages make it pretty clear that Kim Foxx's office was not prepared for the level of public scrutiny, public interest in this case. The day that those 16 charges were dropped, one assistant in Kim Foxx's office wrote, "Just wish I could have anticipated the magnitude of this response and planned a bit better." You mentioned Kim Fox had recused, but these messages do show that she was still getting involved. She says it was regarding kind of office policies on prosecutions in general. Now, she called Jussie Smollett a washed-up celeb. That is the headline here. That's what people are grabbing onto here. Is that an inappropriate characterization of a person that they are involved in investigating? But it also gives us some idea of why those charges were dropped. Kim Foxx clearly thought that those 16 felony counts were excessive. She wrote in one message, "So I'm recused but when people accuse us of overcharging cases, 16 counts on a class four becomes Exhibit A." She goes on to say, "A pedophile with four victims, 10 counts, a washed-up celeb who lied to cops, 16. Just because we can charge something doesn't mean we should." Her office is under investigation. She welcomes that. We'll see what happens -- Ana?</s>CABRERA: All right, Nick Watt, in Los Angeles, thank you. And thank you at home for joining me. "INSIDE POLITICS" with Dana Bash starts right now.
Texts Reveal Prosecutor Discussed Smollett Case after Public Recusal.