Empire actor Jussie Smollett once again faces charges in Chicago related to the “hoax” attack nearly a year after the initial charges against him were dropped, as a special prosecutor has indicted him on six new counts.
New charges against Smollett
On Tuesday, a Cook County grand jury brought six counts of disorderly conduct against Jussie Smollett for his alleged staging of a racist and homophobic hate crime and for lying to police about the incident.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb announced the charges against Smollett, saying that the additional prosecution of the actor is in the “interest of justice.”
Smollett’s Attorney says the move is political
Tina Glandian, Smollett’s Attorney issued a statement calling the new charges political.
“The attempt to re-prosecute Mr. Smollett one year later on the eve of the Cook County State’s Attorney election is clearly all about politics, not justice,” Glandian said in a statement.
The initial incident
Smollett claimed he had been attacked at 2 AM on January 29, 2019, while he was walking to buy a sandwich from a Subway location near his Chicago home.
When he spoke to Chicago police, Smollett told them he had been attacked by two light-skinned individuals who had made racist and homophobic slurs, including calling him the ‘nN-word’ and a ‘f*ggot.’
Later, two brothers of Nigerian descent, Abel and Ola Osundairo, were identified by police as the attackers.
After questioning, the pair confessed that they knew Smollett and that he had paid them to stage the incident. The hoax was all a ruse that was allegedly staged to boost his salary and celebrity profile.
Previous charges
After the hoax unraveled, Smollett was charged by a grand jury on 16 counts – facing over 50 years in prison.
Last March, Chicago’s State Attorney Kim Foxx suddenly dropped all the charges against Smollett in exchange for the actor serving community service.
Chicago’s Chief of Police Eddie Johnson and former mayor Rahm Emanuel were blindsided by the sudden dropping of the charges and were both outraged.
Smollett sued Chicago over previous charges
After the charges against Smollett were dropped, he proceeded to insist that he was innocent all along, and promptly sued the city of Chicago for malicious prosecution.