False Assault: New Twist In The Jussie Smollett Case

Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, suspected of orchestrating his own assault, was charged on Tuesday with six new charges.

Eleven months after the charges were dropped, Jussie Smollett is caught up in the courts. A Chicago prosecutor said on Tuesday that the former actor in the “Empire” series, suspected of having orchestrated his own assault, has been charged with six new charges. This umpteenth twist, in this case, comes after a judge, having considered that the case of Jussie Smollett had been badly treated in the first place by the prosecutor of the County of Cook, put the file in the hands of another prosecutor, writes the “New York Times”.

According to the newspaper, five of the new charges against Jussie Smollett relate to false testimony to Chicago police dated January 29, 2019, the day of his alleged assault. The last is in connection with another testimony made this time on February 14, 2019, when the police began to have doubts about the story of the 37-year-old young man.

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“The attempt to prosecute Mr. Smollett again a year later, on the eve of the election for the Cook County Attorney General, is clearly more a political act than a need for justice,” said Tina Glandian, one of the lawyers for the actor excluded from the “Empire” series after the controversy surrounding his possible attack. He claimed to have been attacked on January 29 in central Chicago by two masked individuals. According to his account, they shouted “racist and homophobic” insults at him and made reference to Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” before hitting him.

The police quickly estimated that the actor had staged this assault to advance his career. Based on his investigation, a grand jury had charged the actor with sixteen counts, including filing a false complaint. On March 26, the Illinois prosecutor announced that the charges would be dropped and his charges cleared from his criminal record, in exchange for the withholding of his bail of $ 10,000 and two days of community service, but without acknowledgement of guilt. A few days later, the Chicago city hall had announced its intention to sue Jussie Smollett who refused to reimburse the costs of the investigation for his alleged assault. He is expected in court on February 24.