Chicago — A year after he claimed he was attacked by two white men, actor Jussie Smollett is reportedly again under indictment for what happened in January 2019.
On the bitterly cold night of January 29, 2019 — actor Jussie Smollett claimed he was attacked when he went out to get a sandwich. Smollett claimed to police he had been attacked by white men who put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him.
In part, because the wind chill temperatures on that night were well below zero, and virtually no one was out on the streets that evening, many questioned Smollett’s statement from the start. Then during the subsequent police investigation, police said Smollett failed to fully cooperate with investigators. These and other irregularities lead police to suspect Smollett, who went on national TV to deny he had fabricated the story of his attack.
But after a lengthy investigation by Chicago Police, two Nigerian brothers told police that Smollett had paid them to attack him in a staged event that was said to have been a hoax intended to result in Smollett getting paid more money for his role on the television series EMPIRE.
A Grand Jury heard the evidence against Smollett alleging he’d lied to police, created a hoax on the city, and the jury issued a 16-count indictment against Smollett.
But Kim Foxx, the State’s Attorney for Cook County, who is now seeking re-election, dismissed the charges against Smollett. Following those dismissals, then Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and then Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, held a press conference to condemn the dismissal of charges against Smollett, noting the testimony of the Nigerian brothers and other evidence they said showed Smollett had filed a false report, and wasted valuable time of the Chicago Police, who spent weeks investigating the alleged crime.
Famed Chicago attorney, Dan Webb, was appointed as a Special Prosecutor in the wake of Kim Foxx dropping charges and on February 11, nearly 13 months after the story broke in the press — Webb is reported to have again indicted Smollett.
And these new charges come as Kim Foxx is seeking to retain her position as State’s Attorney for Cook County. These new charges will surely remind the public of Foxx’s decision to ignore the Grand Jury findings against Smollett, and could well cause her political damage as she seeks the Democratic nomination on March 17th.
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