mobanmarketCHICAGO — The Department of Justice and FBI will review the Jussie Smollett case, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Thursday morning. The president called the case “outrageous” and an “embarrassment” to the United States.
After Chicago police and prosecutors accused Smollett of staging his own attack for publicity, all felony counts against Smollett were dropped Tuesday in exchange for forfeiture of his $10,000 bond payment and community service.
Smollett, who is gay and biracial, claimed he was attacked in Chicago in January by men who yelled homophobic and racial slurs at him. The actor also claimed that, during the attack, the men called out, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan.
Police said Smollett paid two brothers to stage the attack to advance his career.
Chicago Police Department Supt. Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the case’s outcome a “whitewash of justice.” In a press conference Tuesday, Johnson said that Smollett chose to “hide behind secrecy and a brokered deal to circumvent the judicial system.”
Chicago’s police union has questioned the legality of the prosecution’s role in dropping charges following revelations of text messages sent between Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Smollett’s private attorney.
Foxx’s office said that the outcome of Smollett’s case — alternative prosecution — is not an unusual one for the Class 4 felonies that Smollett was charged with. The office emphasized that the actor was not exonerated.
“The charges were dropped in return for Mr. Smollett’s agreement to do community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the City of Chicago. Without the completion of these terms, the charges would not have been dropped,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a statement. “This outcome was met under the same criteria that would occur for and is available to any defendant with similar circumstances.”
Recent court and police records show that Smollett’s case outcome is more privileged than Foxx is claiming, according to a report by CWB Chicago. Many people with cases that have aligned with Smollett’s have ended up pleading guilty and receiving lifetime criminal records.
A Cook County judge has ordered Chicago police to halt the dissemination of case files and any information related to Smollett’s case after the “Empire” actor’s legal team accused the police of disseminating misinformation.
Smollett’s attorney, Patricia Brown Holmes, said his legal team supports his court files being preserved and will not request that his record be destroyed, according to a statement obtained by multiple news outlets.