Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has been indicted by a special prosecutor in Illinois on six new felony charges related to an alleged racist attack he reportedly lied to the police about in January, 2019, according to news reports.
At the time, Smollett called the police and reported that he was the subject of a racist and homophobic attack near his Chicago home. He claimed he was punched in the face by two masked attackers, had an “unknown chemical substance” poured on him and a rope wrapped around his neck. He also said his attackers made reference to MAGA, the Make America Great Again slogan used by Trump supporters.
However, following investigations, authorities accused him of staging the attack on himself for publicity. Police claimed Smollett paid two Black brothers to carry out the attack “to promote his career” because he was “dissatisfied with his salary.”
Smollett denied the accusations and after an emergency court appearance in March 2019, prosecutors dropped all the charges against him.
However, Chicago Police and the city’s mayor stood by their case against Jussie Smollett and accused the courts of letting him “off scot-free”. Police also accused Smollett of mailing a threatening letter to himself at the Chicago studio where “Empire” is filmed.
“I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I was being accused of,” he said at the time.
Smollett now faces six counts of disorderly conduct, special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement.
Webb, who was assigned in August to investigate how local prosecutors handled the case, said in a statement he was going to further prosecute Smollett.
The actor had now been charged with “making four separate false reports to Chicago Police Department officers related to his false claims that he was the victim of a hate crime, knowing that he was not the victim of a crime,” Mr Webb said. He is due in court on 24 February.
