Jussie Smollet
(Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
(Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
Smollett was charged a year ago with staging a violent attack near his Streeterville home.
Jussie Smollet has been indicted by a special prosecutor in Chicago, the indictment comes after he alleged he was the victim of a hate crime.
According to the Chicago Sun Times investigators in the case have reportedly been sent to California to interview individuals close to Smollet. A year ago, the former Empire actor was charged for allegedly staging the attack near his Streeterville home.
A former U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed by Judge Michael Toomin six months ago. Per the Chicago Sun Times' report, he was appointed to review the evidence against Smollet with the “possibility of filing new charges.” Webb was also said to be investigating how the case was “handled” by Cook County State’s Attorney General Kim Foxx and her staffers.
The New York Times reports that Smollet’s recollection of the attack was false and that the police report filed was also inaccurate. The Chicago police concluded that he had paid two brothers to stage the attack in which they reportedly shouted homophobic and racist slurs. Police said Smollett was aiming for publicity because he was “unhappy with his salary on the television show Empire.” He was fired from the cast after his arrest.
Ultimately, detectives determined the actor paid two acquaintances to attack him. The brothers actually were extras on Empire.
Foxx previously stepped down from the case the day before the previously mentioned charges were announced, by doing so she delegated the decision in the case to Joseph Magats. Nearly a month after, Smollet turned himself in and the State Attorney's Office dropped all charges.
