*Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is being sued by a former attorney for the city after she allegedly berated him during a meeting over the removal of the Christopher Columbus Statue.
George Smyrniotis, 65, who served as First Deputy General Counsel for the district, is suing Lightfoot for defamation and claims she used obscene language ver a Zoom call.
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Under Lightfoot’s orders, the Columbus statue was removed in July 2020 amid unrest over the murder of George Floyd, during which protesters attempted to topple the monument.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, says that during the Zoom call, Lightfoot berated a group of lawyers who struck with an Italian-American group to display the statue in the Columbus Day Parade.
The suit claims Lightfoot insinuated that Smyrniotis is incapable of performing his duties as an attorney. According to the report, he has been a licensed attorney in Illinois since 1989 and had been employed by the park district since 2007.
