Actor Smollett indicted by grand jury.
CHICAGO >> Actor Jussie Smollett was indicted Tuesday for a second time on charges of lying to police about a racist and antigay attack he allegedly staged on himself last year in downtown Chicago.
The indictment came from a special prosecutor who was appointed after Cook County prosecutors dropped the same charges last March.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement that Smollett faces six counts of disorderly conduct, charges that stem from four separate false reports that he gave to police in which he contended he was a victim of a hate crime “knowing that he was not the victim of a crime.”
Smollett, who is black and gay, was originally cha r ge d with disorderly conduct last February for allegedly staging the attack and lying about it to investigators. The allegations were dropped the following month with little explanation, angering police officials and thenMayor Rahm Emanuel.
Tina Glandian, Smollett’s attorney, questioned Webb’s decision to file new charges.
The indictment “raises serious questions about the integrity of the investigation that led to the renewed charges” Glandian said, citing the use of the same detectives who were part of the original investigation in the latest probe, despite Smollett’s pending civil claims against the city and police officers for malicious prosecution.
Smollett told police he was walking home Jan. 29, 2019, when two masked men approached him, made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck. He said his assailants, at least one of whom he described as white, told him he was in “MAGA country” — a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Several weeks later, authorities alleged that Smollett had paid two black friends $3,500 to help him stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary as an actor on “Empire” and wanted to drum up publicity for his career.