Chicago police charge ‘Empire’ actor with filing false report
US police on Wednesday charged a TV actor with lying to authorities about being the victim of a racist and homophobic attack on the streets of Chicago.
Jussie Smollett is facing felony criminal charges for allegedly filing a false police report on January 29, when he claimed two masked men beat him late at night in downtown Chicago while yelling racial and homophobic slurs.
The alleged incident on January 29 initially seemed to confirm the worst fears of growing intolerance in the US and led to an outpouring of support for actor Jussie Smollett.
But in the following weeks, the 36-year-old star of the TV drama Empire has gone from victim to suspect, and his case held up as a cautionary tale of rushing to judgment to indict the Donald Trump era.
“Felony criminal charges have been approved by Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct/Filing a False Police Report,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.
“Detectives will make contact with his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest.”
Smollett reported to police that two masked men beat him.
He said his assailants poured bleach on him, tied a rope around his neck, and yelled “This is MAGA country” – a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Detectives grew suspicious of the account after interrogating two men who reportedly revealed that they were hired to stage the incident.
Chicago TV station WBBM said the men, brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo, claimed Smollett was unhappy that a threatening letter he had earlier received at the Chicago studios where his television show is filmed had not gotten enough attention.