News and Commentary

Chicago Judge Orders Jussie Smollett Case File, Records Unsealed

Emily Zanotti

On Thursday, a Chicago judge ruled in favor of a collection of media outlets who requested court documents and investigation records related to “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s alleged fake hate crime, unsealing Smollett’s case file and granting reporters access to the full trove.

The Chicago Sun-Times — one of the papers requesting access to the Smollett file — reported that the Cook County judge, Steven Watkins, ordered the documents unsealed because Smollett and his attorneys had “not shown good cause to rebut the public presumption of access.”

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