President Donald Trump may have launched his most scathing insult yet at Democrats during a speech he gave to the International Association of Police Chiefs on Monday in Chicago, comparing them to former &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor and alleged hate crime hoaxer, Jussie Smollett.
The President took aim at several characters in his Chicago speech, excorating the city&#8217;s major and police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, who skipped the conference to avoid Trump, as well as Congressional Democrats currently conducting an impeachment &#8220;inquiry&#8221; behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.
Smollett, of course, is now famous for being the victim of a &#8220;hate crime&#8221; last winter. Smollett claimed that two white men wearing &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; hats waited for him outside his apartment in Chicago&#8217;s tony Streeterville neighborhood, and accosted him when he returned home with a midnight snack in the wee hours of January 29th. The actor eventually told police that the two men assaulted him, beat him, tossed a &#8220;noose&#8221; over his neck, and then ran away, shouting a host of racial and homophobic slurs, capped off with the declaration, &#8220;This is MAGA country!&#8221;
An extensive police investigation appeared to reveal that Smollett had collaborated with two friends &#8212; both &#8220;Empire&#8221; extras and local personal trainers &#8212; to stage the attack. He was charged with sixteen counts of lying to police officers, but the charges were eventually dropped in a sweetheart deal with Chicago&#8217;s chief prosecutor.
Trump clearly hasn&#8217;t forgotten that he and his supporters were drawn into Smollett&#8217;s alleged hoax, and that, for days, celebrities and media figures assailed President Trump over the attack. And he certainly hasn&#8217;t forgotten that some of Smollett&#8217;s top defenders are now involved in establishing a case for his impeachment.
&#8220;You have the case of this wiseguy Jussie Smollett who beat up himself, and he said MAGA country did it. It’s a crime, a hate crime. That’s a scam, a real big scam just like the impeachment of your president is a scam,” Trump told the room full of police officers.
“And you look what’s going on, Smollett is still trying to get away with it. He would have been better off with his face on [a] $100,000 bill,&#8221; he continued.
The Trump Administration maintains that the President should not be the subject of an impeachment inquiry, but Democrats are pursuing one, regardless, under the theory that Trump made a quid-pro-quo deal with Ukrainian officials: international aid dollars in return for a Ukrainian investigation into whether former Vice President (and current candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination) Joe Biden used his office to pull strings for his son, Hunter, who was doing business in the country.
Trump followed up his criticism of Democrats with criticism of Chicago&#8217;s police.
“People like Johnson put criminals and illegal aliens before the citizens of Chicago,” Trump said, referencing Chicago&#8217;s &#8220;sanctuary city&#8221; policy and the city&#8217;s high murder rate. “Those are his values and, frankly, those values to me are a disgrace.”
&#8220;It&#8217;s embarrassing to us as a nation,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;All over the world they&#8217;re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison.&#8221;
While Trump is generally correct about the Afghanistan numbers, Johnson has presided over a steep decline in violent crime in Chicago, according to the Chicago Police Department&#8217;s own numbers. Shootings &#8212; by far Chicago&#8217;s most public problem &#8212; are down more than 10% year over year, and Chicago has officially lost the title of &#8220;most violent city in America,&#8221; dropping to twenty-first after cities like Baltimore, Maryland, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/experience/america/2018/10/17/25-most-dangerous-cities-america/1669467002/">according to USA Today</a>.
Johnson is also, ironically, the chief motivating force behind an ongoing city of Chicago lawsuit against Jussie Smollett, seeking to recover $130,000 worth of overtime pay accrued by detectives investigating Smollett&#8217;s &#8220;hate crime.&#8221;
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Jussie Smollet

President Trump Compares Impeachment To Jussie Smollett &#8216;Scam&#8217; In Chicago Speech

Chicago

Donald Trump

Jussie Smollett

Former &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor Jussie Smollett and his attorneys lost their bid, Tuesday, to toss out a civil case, filed by the city of Chicago seeking to recoup around $130,000 spent investigating Smollett&#8217;s alleged hoax hate crime.
A Federal judge told Smollett&#8217;s attorneys that the case can move forward into discovery and the court set a loose timeline for trial, tabling litigation until early 2020.
The city of Chicago filed the civil suit against Smollett after he failed to pay a $130,000 bill, levied by the city&#8217;s Finance Department, to recoup dozens of overtime hours accrued by Chicago Police Department detectives while the chased down two racist, homophobic individuals who, Smollett said, attacked him outside of his apartment in the city&#8217;s tony Streeterville neighborhood in the wee hours of January 19th.
Smollett claimed that two white attackers wearing &#8220;Make America Great Again Hats&#8221; accosted him as he made his way back home from a nearby Subway sandwich shop. According to Smollett, the two men assaulted him, punched him in the face, tossed a noose around his neck, and doused him with a chemical before yelling, &#8220;This is MAGA country!&#8221; and taking off, leaving him lying in the street.
Smollett filed two police reports, one almost immediately after the incident and a second one later in the day after being released from the hospital, where he&#8217;d gone for treatment for minor injuries.
It later emerged, following an intense, multi-week investigation by Chicago Police Department detectives, that Smollett may have orchestrated his own hate crime, paying two former &#8220;Empire&#8221; extras &#8212; a pair of Nigerian-American brothers who also served as Smollett&#8217;s sometimes-personal trainers &#8212; to stage the attack in order to elevate his profile (which he thought could earn him more on &#8220;Empire&#8221;).
Following these revelations, which came alongside surveillance footage, further police interviews, and sworn testimony from the two brothers, Smollett was charged with 16 counts of filing a false police report &#8212; one count for each crime he alleged.
Smollett was eventually let off the hook, inking a de facto plea deal with the Cook County States Attorney, who dropped all charges against Smollett in return for two dozen hours of community service, which Smollett had previously completed, and Smollett&#8217;s $10,000 bond deposit. Smollett was not &#8220;cleared&#8221; of the charges, but the deal effectively ended the city of Chicago&#8217;s involvement in the case. An FBI and United States Postal Service investigation, into allegations that Smollett sent himself a noxious substance through the mail, has yet to conclude.
The city of Chicago then filed their suit seeking reimbursement.
Smollett&#8217;s attorneys argued Tuesday, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2019/10/22/jussie-smollett-chicago-lawsuit-actor-still-facing-130-k-civil-suit/4000512002/">USA Today reports</a>, that Smollett should not be forced to pay because &#8220;Smollett himself did not direct Chicago police to spend weeks investigating his claim and could not have known how much time and money would be spent.&#8221;
The judge did not agree, noting that &#8220;if someone was going to falsely claim a racist and homophobic attack, it isn’t unreasonable to think the Chicago Police wouldn’t spend the hours necessary to investigate it,&#8221; according to local <a href="https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1186658483896229892">Chicago reporter Rafer Weigel</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Judge Kendall denies <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JussieSmollett?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JussieSmollett</a> lawyers request to dismiss the case. Saying, if someone was going to falsely claim a racist and homophobic attack, it isn’t unreasonable to think the <a href="https://twitter.com/Chicago_Police?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Chicago_Police</a> wouldn’t spend the hours necessary to investigate it. Moving to discovery. <a href="https://t.co/Qv6t9GwioL">https://t.co/Qv6t9GwioL</a>
&mdash; Rafer Weigel (@RaferWeigel) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1186646829263400960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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When asked why Smollett wanted to pursue the case, despite the likelihood that his legal fees will total more than the original $130,000 fine, <a href="https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1186658483896229892">his attorney told Weigel</a> that “my client has maintained his innocence and he believes you don’t put a price tag on that. He’s willing to spend what it takes to prove his innocence because, unfortunately, he has been proven guilty in the media more than proven innocent.&#8221;
His attorney later added, “(Jussie) has always maintained his innocence and is happy to have this decided on the facts and when the facts come out they will show his innocence.”
The judge opened the case up to discovery and pre-trial motions. A trial on the merits of the case is likely to wait until summer of 2020.

Actor Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett Loses Bid To Boot Civil Suit From Chicago Finance Department

Former White House aide Tina Tchen will take the reins of the &#8220;#MeToo&#8221;-centered Time&#8217;s Up foundation, which advocates for women who face discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in the entertainment industry &#8212; and its the same Tina Tchen that tried to wield her influence to get former &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor Jussie Smollet off the hook for allegedly filing a false police report in Chicago.
Time&#8217;s Up was formed by Hollywood A-listers in the wake of a high-profile wave of sexual harassment allegations aimed at some of the entertainment industry&#8217;s biggest names. <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/10/times-up-names-former-obama-aide-tina-tchen-as-its-new-president-and-ceo-1202753957/">According to Deadline</a>, the organization primarily runs the Time&#8217;s Up Legal Defense Fund, which helps &#8220;defray legal and public relations costs for those pursuing sexual harassment retaliation claims,&#8221; and which Tchen co-founded back in 2018.
Time&#8217;s Up announced their new hire on Monday in a Tweet. Tchen released a video in partnership with Time&#8217;s Out Monday afternoon. In it, she explains her firm commitment to victims rights and due process.
&#8216;I have been a single working mother throughout my career, and I have never witnessed such an inspiring and honest conversation about the challenges facing women and all workers, including sexual harassment, power, and equity,” Tchen says in the video statement. “I am more optimistic than ever that we can create workplaces where everyone has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential and, in this new role, I’m determined to make it happen.”
Her official biography on the Time&#8217;s Up website describes Tchen as a tireless advocate for women and girls, and a former aide to both Barack and Michelle Obama, serving on the Obama White House&#8217;s gender equality and sexual assault task forces. She most recently worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center, helping to identify and process sexual harassment claims made against some of SPLC&#8217;s power players.
Her goal, she says, is to force workplaces in Hollywood to abide by the letter of the law.
“[We’re going to] work hard at the root cause of sexual harassment: because sexual harassment occurs when we have workplaces that aren’t diverse, that aren’t inclusive, that don’t respect their workers,” Tchen says. “And so we’re going to work with companies, with employers, with employees to make those workplaces ones that are safe, respectful, and where everyone can reach their full potential.”
Tchen has recently made headlines for her involvement in a high profile criminal case recently, but not on the side of victims &#8212; or taxpayers.
According to the Sun Times, Tchen is the former Obama aide who reached out to Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx to plead Jussie Smollet&#8217;s case.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-michelle-obama-chief-staff-pushed-get-james-barrett">The Daily Wire reported extensively</a> on Tchen&#8217;s involvement in the Smollet case at the time. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/03/13/jussie-smollett-former-obama-aide-asked-fbi-lead-investigation/3156693002/">Court documents revealed</a> that Tchen texted and emailed Foxx at the behest of Jussie Smollet&#8217;s family, begging the Cook County prosecutor to convince the police to drop their case against Smollet or turn over the case to the FBI (which probably would have relegated the case to a low priority).
Foxx ended up recusing herself from the investigation &#8212; at least according to Foxx &#8212; before it concluded, citing her messages with Tchen as evidence she could not claim impartiality in the case. The prosecutor&#8217;s office eventually charged Smollet with 16 counts of lying to police but dropped all counts in an unofficial &#8220;plea deal&#8221; with Jussie, who agreed to do a dozen hours of community service and forfeit a $10,000 bond.
Foxx has come under fire for that decision, particularly in light of recent revelations about her office, including evidence that non-celebrities charged with Smollet&#8217;s same crime received much harsher treatment.

Tina Tchen Time&#8217;s Up

New #MeToo Leader Is Former Obama Aide Who Ran Interference For Jussie Smollet

Hollywood

Michelle Obama

Sexual Harassment

Speculation about whether “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett may yet be charged for orchestrating a hate crime hoax intensified after the two brothers who say the actor hired them to attack him met with the special prosecutor working on the case.
Abel and Ola Osundairo said earlier this year that Smollett hired them to attack him while he was out in Chicago one early, frigid morning so that he could negotiate a higher salary on “Empire.” TMZ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/10/05/jussie-smollett-osundairo-brothers-meeting-special-prosecutor/">reported</a> this weekend that the brothers met with Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, who was assigned to look into the deal that allowed Smollett to get off the hook for faking the attack by paying $10,000 and performing 16 hours of community service.
“Sources close to the case tell TMZ &#8230; Abel and Ola met with Dan Webb&#8217;s team this week because the special prosecutor wanted to hear their full story &#8212; their version of Jussie&#8217;s alleged attack,” TMZ reported. “Our sources say the brothers each spent a couple hours with the special prosecutor&#8217;s team.”
Smollett was original indicted on 16 felony accounts for allegedly making up the attack. Smollett had claimed in late January that he went to a Subway sandwich restaurant at two in the morning during a polar vortex. As he was returning home, he claimed, two white men wearing pro-Trump hats attacked him, poured bleach on him, tied a noose around his neck, and shouted racial and homophobic slurs. This account required people to believe there are Trump supporters in Deep Blue Chicago who spend their nights trawling for someone to attack – and that these same people watch “Empire” and knew who Smollett was.
The charges against Smollett were dismissed by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said she had recused herself from the case due to a conflict of interest yet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-prosecutor-kim-foxx-deputies-subpoenaed-emily-zanotti">her influence was still seen</a> in the plea deal. Then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the office’s decision to drop the charges a “whitewash of justice.”
A special prosecutor was appointed to look into how the case unraveled. The City of Chicago is also still looking into ways to force Smollett to repay them for the time and resources spent on investigating the alleged hoax.
TMZ also reported that Webb has his own conflict-of-interest issues, but a Chicago judge ruled Friday that it does not appear as though Webb is biased. Webb had donated $1,000 to Foxx’s campaign and hosted a fundraiser for her.
Page Six <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/10/05/special-prosecutor-meets-with-nigerian-brothers-in-jussie-smollett-probe/">reported</a> that Webb has the power to reinstate charges against Smollett.
Last week, Smollett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jussie-smollett-lashes-out-after-being-compared-to-girl-who-faked-hate-crime-i-havent-lied-about-a-thing">lashed out</a> at a self-help guru who compared him to 12-year-old Amari Allen, who had claimed white boys at her school held her down, cut her dreads, and hurled racial slurs at her. After the media incredulously reported her crimes, Allen admitted she made up the story and her grandparents apologized on her behalf.
Smollett claimed he was nothing like Allen despite the similar stories:
<blockquote>With all due respect brother, y’all can clown me all you want but my story has actually never changed and I haven’t lied about a thing. Y’all can continue to be misinformed, internalized sheep, who believe what actual proven liars feed you or you can read the actual docs. Either way, I’mma be alright. I know me and what happened. You don’t. So carry on. All love.</blockquote>

Jussie Smollet May Still Be Charged Over Hate Crime Hoax

Hate Crime

Hoax

Jussie Smollett lashed out this week after being compared to the pre-teen girl who falsely claimed three white boys at her school held her down and cut her dreads.
On Monday, The Shade Room posted a photo on Instagram of its article about the Virginia teenager, Amari Allen, after she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/african-american-girl-claimed-white-classmates-forcibly-cut-her-hair-now-the-truth-is-out">admitted to making up the story</a>. Her grandparents apologized for her lies and the hurt she caused to the three white students she falsely accused.
Self-help guru Derrick Jaxn responded to the post, writing, “Jussie really is a trendsetter [face palm emoji].” The post was an obvious reference to Smollett’s claims earlier this year that two white male supporters of President Donald Trump viciously attacked him in Chicago and placed a noose around his neck. The case was later determined to not be true, as the men were actually of Nigerian descent and knew Smollett personally. The two men said Smollett paid them to orchestrate the hoax.
Jaxn’s comment apparently irked Smollett, who responded:
<blockquote>With all due respect brother, y&#8217;all can clown me all you want but my story has actually never changed and I haven&#8217;t lied about a thing. Y&#8217;all can continue to be misinformed, internalized sheep, who believe what actual proven liars feed you or you can read the actual docs. Either way, I&#8217;mma be alright. I know me and what happened. You don&#8217;t. So carry on. All love.</blockquote>
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<a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3DLIfsB4zW/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">#ClapbackSeason: #JussieSmollett stepped into #TheShadeRoom to let his truth be known! 👀</a>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" href="https://www.instagram.com/theshaderoom/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> The Shade Room</a> (@theshaderoom) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2019-09-30T20:57:55+00:00">Sep 30, 2019 at 1:57pm PDT</time>
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Smollett’s claim was ludicrous on its face. It requires one to believe that there are emboldened Trump supporters in Deep Blue Chicago wandering the town at 2 a.m. during a polar vortex with a bottle of bleach and rope just hoping to run into someone they could attack. It also requires one to believe that these two predators watched “Empire” and recognized Smollett as an actor.
Smollett went to a Subway restaurant in the early hours of January 29, 2019. On his way back to his friend’s apartment, the two men allegedly attacked him. He returned to the apartment with the noose still around his neck and his Subway meal intact.
Police investigated Smollett’s claims, eventually learning that two brothers of Nigerian descent were behind the attacks. One had been paid by Smollett for personal training and had been a guest star on “Empire.” The two claimed Smollett paid them to orchestrate the attack and even purchased the red baseball hats they wore that were meant to look like Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats.
Police charged Smollett for staging the attack in an attempt to negotiate a higher salary on “Empire,” but the charges were dropped in what many believe was a corrupt deal. Smollett paid a $10,000 bond and performed 16 hours of community service for his actions, though he maintains his victimhood. The city of Chicago is currently attempting to recover the costs of the investigation into Smollett’s claims.
Last week, media outlets fell for yet another hate crime hoax after a Virginia teenager claimed three white classmates held her down, cut her dreads, and called her hair “nappy.” The teen later admitted she made up the incident.

Jussie Smollett Lashes Out After Being Compared To Girl Who Faked Hate Crime: ‘I Haven’t Lied About A Thing’

After law enforcement concluded that instead of being a victim of a racist, homophobic assault by Trump supporters on a freezing cold night in Chicago, actor Jussie Smollett had allegedly &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; a hate crime hoax against himself, &#8220;Empire&#8221; announced that he would not be returning for its final season.
On Tuesday, the first episode of the Fox show&#8217;s final season aired with one character conspicuously missing. So how did the show&#8217;s creators choose to write Smollett off the show? They literally gave his absence a dismissive &#8220;anyway.&#8221;
&#8220;The last time &#8216;Empire&#8217; fans saw Jussie Smollett on the show, he was getting married to the love of his life, looking jubilant in a white tuxedo and dancing with his new husband while family drama swirled around him,&#8221; writes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/arts/television/jussie-smollett-empire.html">The New York Times&#8217;</a> Julia Jacobs. &#8220;At that point, Mr. Smollett’s character, Jamal Lyon, was the focal point of the show: Fans watched him fret over his vows and patch up a last-minute fight with his fiancé before they walked down the aisle.&#8221;
Cut to the Season 6 premiere in which the suddenly vanished Jamal is merely a passing reference. His glaring absence is only noted in one scene, in which his mother Cookie (played by Taraji Henson) and Jamal&#8217;s good friend Becky Williams (Gabourey Sidibe) briefly mention that he has simply decided to &#8220;[run] off to London.&#8221;
Cookie reveals the bizarre disappearance of Jamal in reference to Becky&#8217;s ultra-feminine PJs. When Becky remarks that she used to wear outfits like that to sleepovers with Jamal, Cookie quips, &#8220;No wonder that boy ran off to London.&#8221;
Why did he move to London? Becky offers another joking comment as a pseudo-explanation. &#8220;I thought he was running away from Lyon drama,&#8221; she says.
&#8220;I really miss him,&#8221; adds Becky, which prompts Cookie to reply, &#8220;Please don&#8217;t get me started; I miss him so much.&#8221;
With now just four lines dedicated to Jamal&#8217;s almost show-stopping disappearance — two throw-away jokes and two a little more serious but equally insincere — Cookie moves on with a big &#8220;anyway.&#8221;
&#8220;Anyway, why do we need to have this slumber party?&#8221; she ask.
And with that, Smollett&#8217;s central character is entirely dismissed from the formerly high-rated show.
As the controversy surrounding Smollett&#8217;s case continued following the abrupt dismissal of his long list of charges by much-criticized Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx, and city officials filing a lawsuit against him to recoup the $130,000 they say was wasted on investigating his &#8220;false report,&#8221; &#8220;Empire&#8221; creator Lee Daniels announced in June that Smollett would not be returning to the show.
In August, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-special-prosecutor-appointed-jussie-ryan-saavedra">appointed</a> a special prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, to investigate the way Smollett&#8217;s case was handled by Foxx&#8217;s office — and was given the power to potentially reinstate the charges, or even add additional charges, against the actor. While Smollett and his lawyers maintain that &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51162/jussie-smollett-pr-team-every-iota-hate-crime-paul-bois">every iota</a>&#8221; of the police-disputed story he told authorities is true, their various motions to have the city&#8217;s lawsuit dismissed have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/smollett-lawyers-make-last-ditch-argument-try-get-james-barrett">failed</a>.
This week was an awkward one for &#8220;Empire&#8221; in more ways than one. Along with the &#8220;anyway&#8221; scene dismissing one of the show&#8217;s biggest stars, another one of the leads in the series, Terrence Howard, landed himself in headlines for his wild explanation for why he was leaving the acting business altogether.
&#8220;I’ve made some discoveries in my personal life with the science that Pythagoras was searching for,&#8221; Howard told a bewildered interviewer on the red carpet of the Emmys Sunday. &#8220;I was able to open up the flower of life and find the real wave conjugations that we’ve been looking for for 10,000 years.&#8221; He went on to claim that he was going to &#8220;build the Milky Way galaxy without gravity.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-empire-stars-viral-emmys-interview-im-going-james-barrett">WATCH: ‘Empire’ Star’s Viral Emmys Interview: I’m Going To ‘Build The Milky Way Galaxy Without Gravity’</a>

‘Anyway’: Here’s How Jussie Smollett Was Written Off ‘Empire’

Racism

Sexuality

A few weeks after announcing that he was retiring from acting so he could &#8220;bring truth to the word,&#8221; &#8220;Empire&#8221; star Terrence Howard gave a red carpet interview at the Emmy&#8217;s on Sunday in which he attempted to present some of that &#8220;truth&#8221; he wants everyone to know — and it involves &#8220;the science that Pythagoras was searching for&#8221; and building Saturn and the Milky Way galaxy &#8220;without gravity.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51698/empire-star-terrence-howard-quits-acting-bring-paul-bois">The Daily Wire</a> reported two weeks ago, Howard told <a href="https://extratv.com/2019/09/11/empire-star-terrence-howard-says-hes-done-with-acting-once-the-show-ends/">Extra</a> correspondent Miss USA Cheslie Kryst that the cancelation of &#8220;Empire,&#8221; which came shortly after the Jussie Smollett debacle, helped lead the actor to decide to get out of the business altogether.
&#8220;What do you think will happen with your career? What do you see yourself doing going forward?&#8221; Kryst asked the 50-year-old actor.
&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m done with acting. I&#8217;m done pretending,&#8221; he replied.
&#8220;You&#8217;re finishing up, you&#8217;re no long-acting, and you&#8217;re focusing solely on philanthropy and other interests?&#8221; asked Kryst.
&#8220;No, not philanthropy,&#8221; said Howard. &#8220;I&#8217;m just focusing on bringing truth to the world.&#8221;
So what exactly is that &#8220;truth&#8221;? Howard may have offered the world a glimpse into it on Sunday night. On the red carpet at the 71st annual Emmy Awards, Howard expanded on his reasons for retiring from acting to KTLA anchor Sam Rubin, who did his best to follow Howard&#8217;s increasingly bizarre response (video below).
&#8220;Everyone keeps trying to tell me, &#8216;Don&#8217;t say it&#8217;s forever,&#8217; but I&#8217;ve spent 37 years pretending to be people so people can pretend to watch and enjoy what I&#8217;m doing,&#8221; Howard replied, &#8220;when I&#8217;ve made some discoveries in my personal life with the science that Pythagoras was searching for.&#8221;
&#8220;I was able to open up the flower of life and find the real wave conjugations that we&#8217;ve been looking for for 10,000 years,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Why would I continue walking on water for tips when I&#8217;ve got an entire generation to teach a whole new world?&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s a big remark,&#8221; said Rubin, who appeared to be struggling to figure out how to respond. &#8220;What, what, what do you intend to, to do?&#8221;
In response, Howard began to unpack that &#8220;Pythagorean&#8221; science.
&#8220;All energy in the universe is expressed in motion, all motion is expressed in waves, all waves are curved,&#8221; said the actor. &#8220;So where does the straight lines come from to make the platonic solids? There are no straight lines. So, when I took the flower of life and opened it properly, I found a whole new world of wave conjugations that expose the in-between spaces that— It&#8217;s the thing that holds us all together.
&#8220;You&#8217;re going to be sharing that?&#8221; asked a confounded Rubin.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to share that,&#8221; Howard replied. &#8220;On Tuesday, when I receive my star, I&#8217;m going to be able to prove that gravity is only an effect, not a force.&#8221;
He then revealed the way he is going to &#8220;prove&#8221; it: &#8220;I&#8217;m putting something on YouTube where I will build the planet Saturn without gravity, and build the Milky Way Galaxy without gravity,&#8221; he said.
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">How are we not talking about the Terrance Howard interview on the red carpet at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Emmys2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Emmys2019</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/KTLA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KTLA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SamOnTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SamOnTV</a> WHAT ON EARTH DID I JUST WATCH!?!?!? <a href="https://t.co/6NBilrkFM0">pic.twitter.com/6NBilrkFM0</a>
— StephenGlickman (@StephenGlickman) <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenGlickman/status/1176060073140817921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Howard was one of the stars of &#8220;Empire,&#8221; which was shaken by the Smollett case that dominated headlines earlier this year and has resulted in an ongoing lawsuit and investigation into the star for allegedly orchestrated a fake hate crime against himself. Amid the controversy, Fox announced that it was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48324/empire-creator-blames-hate-crime-hoaxer-jussie-paul-bois">discontinuing</a> &#8220;Empire,&#8221; which had already begun to slip in the ratings before Smollett and was further damaged after the investigation into his &#8220;hate crime&#8221; claim turned against the actor.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51382/smollett-lawyers-make-last-ditch-argument-try-get-james-barrett">Smollett Lawyers Make New Last-Ditch Argument To Try To Get Lawsuit Dismissed</a>
Partial transcript via <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/terrence-howard-gives-odd-interview-emmys-red-carpet-1242597">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.

terrance_howard_gi.jpg

WATCH: ‘Empire’ Star’s Viral Emmys Interview: I’m Going To ‘Build The Milky Way Galaxy Without Gravity’

Actor Terrence Howard, star of the now-canceled television show &#8220;Empire,&#8221; announced he will soon quit acting in order to bring &#8220;truth to the world.&#8221;
Speaking with Cheslie Kryst of <a href="https://extratv.com/2019/09/11/empire-star-terrence-howard-says-hes-done-with-acting-once-the-show-ends/">Extra</a>, Howard said that the cancelation of &#8220;Empire&#8221; has lead him to quit the acting business altogether.
Extra’s Special Correspondent Miss USA Cheslie Kryst was on the set of “Empire” with the show’s star Terrence Howard as he shot the final season of the hit FOX show.
&#8220;What do you think will happen with your career? What do you see yourself doing going forward?&#8221; asked Kryst.
&#8220;Oh, I’m done with acting. I’m done pretending,&#8221; Howard replied.
When pressed about what he will do now, Howard said he simply wants to &#8220;bring truth to the world.&#8221;
&#8220;You&#8217;re finishing up, you&#8217;re no long-acting, and you&#8217;re focusing solely on philanthropy and other interests?&#8221; Kryst asked.
&#8220;No, not philanthropy; I&#8217;m just focusing on bringing truth to the world,&#8221; he replied.
The show &#8220;Empire&#8221; ended in the wake of its chief star, actor Jussie Smollett, being accused by Chicago Police of staging a hoax hate crime against himself at the hands of MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters. At the height of the controversy, Howard openly defended Smollett as more and more evidence mounted indicating his alleged guilt.
&#8220;All your lil homies got you&#8230; We love the hell outta you,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43876/actor-terrence-howard-jussie-smollett-jussie-i-frank-camp">he said on Instagram at the time</a>.
In response to critics, Terrence Howard said that the &#8220;Jussie I know&#8221; could never have concocted a fake hate crime against himself.
&#8220;That&#8217;s the only Jussie I know,&#8221; Howard said. &#8220;The Jussie I know could never even conceive of something so unconscious and ugly. His innocence or judgment is not for any of us to decide. Stay in your lane and my lane is empathy and love and compassion for someone I&#8217;ve called my son for five years. It&#8217;s God&#8217;s job to judge and it&#8217;s ours to love and hope, especially for those that we claim to have loved.&#8221;
Eventually, the evidence that Smollett allegedly hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage a fake hate crime became so overwhelming that the &#8220;Empire&#8221; cast ultimately backed away from the enthusiastic support. After the show&#8217;s cancellation, co-creator Lee Daniels laid the blame mostly on Smollett.
&#8220;I&#8217;m beyond embarrassed,&#8221; Daniels <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51162/jussie-smollett-pr-team-every-iota-hate-crime-paul-bois">told Vulture</a>. &#8220;I think that when it happened, I had a flash of me running from bullies. I had a flash of my whole life, of my childhood, my youth, getting beaten.&#8221;
Daniels added that his love for Smollett makes him feel &#8220;some doubt&#8221; at times that the actor indeed staged a fake hate crime against himself.
&#8220;Of course, there&#8217;s some doubt,&#8221; Daniels said. &#8220;I&#8217;m telling you that because I love him so much. That&#8217;s the torture that I&#8217;m in right now, because it&#8217;s literally if it were to happen to your son and your child, how would you feel? You would feel, Please, God, please let there be that glimmer of hope that there is some truth in this story. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s been so painful. It was a flood of pain.&#8221;
&#8220;We weren&#8217;t there. I can&#8217;t judge him,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s only for the f***ing lady or man with that black robe and God. I had to detach myself and stop calling him, because it was taking away the time I have for my kids, the time I have for my partner. It was affecting my spirit and other shows, everything.&#8221;

Terrence Howard

‘Empire’ Star Terrence Howard Quits Acting To Bring ‘Truth To The World’

In a last-ditch effort to get a $130,000 lawsuit filed by the City of Chicago dismissed, the lawyers of Jussie Smollett filed a motion Tuesday night that tries to make the case that even if a suspect files a false police report, as authorities say Smollett has done, that person can&#8217;t be held liable for the bill of a &#8220;sprawling&#8221; investigation.
Despite significant evidence indicating that he staged a fake hate crime against himself with the help of two of his acquaintances, who confessed as much to authorities, Smollett and his lawyers have adamantly maintained that he is innocent of all charges and that &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51162/jussie-smollett-pr-team-every-iota-hate-crime-paul-bois">every iota</a>&#8221; of his claim to police is true. Smollett told authorities he was attacked by Trump-supporting racists who doused him with bleach, assaulted him, and put a rope around his neck, a story he also told the public and his former &#8220;Empire&#8221; co-stars.
In a 12-page court filing Tuesday night, his legal representatives declared his &#8220;innocence&#8221; again and accused the city of engaging in a &#8220;vindictive&#8221; lawsuit. But they also added a new argument.
&#8220;This unprecedented civil case was filed simply because former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel disagreed with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s decision to dismiss the false police report charges against Mr. Smollett,&#8221; Smollett&#8217;s lawyer William Quinlan said in the motion, as reported by <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/09/04/jussie-smolletts-lawyer-calls-chicagos-130k-lawsuit-vindictive/">Page Six</a>.
&#8220;Mr. Smollett has always maintained and continues to maintain his innocence,&#8221; the filing asserts. &#8220;Yet the City’s claims and purported damages are a vindictive effort to prosecute charges that the State’s Attorney pursued and then chose to drop.&#8221;
While their adamant insistence on his innocence is nothing new, Smollett&#8217;s team added a new wrinkle on Tuesday, as pointed out by <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2019/9/4/20848715/jussie-smollett-chicago-police-probe-lawsuit-gay-homophobic-attack">The Chicago Sun-Times</a>&#8216; Michael Sneed. &#8220;[T]he latest court filing contends even if Smollett did make a false report, there is no way the city can assert he would have known the city would investigate — and investigate it to the extent cops did,&#8221; Sneed notes.
&#8220;The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming,&#8221; Quinlan argues in the filing. &#8220;Smollett has no control over that.&#8221;
&#8220;The filing of a police report, in and of itself, does not necessitate a sprawling investigation nor does it, as a practical matter, usually result in an investigation as extensive as the one the CPD chose to undertake in this case,&#8221; reads the motion, as highlighted by Sneed, adding: &#8220;The City has failed to allege that Mr. Smollett was similarly &#8216;well aware&#8217; that his statements to police would result in 1,836 hours of police overtime, or any other reasons why he should have known this would have been the case.&#8221;
Quinlan makes sure to maintain a sense of optimism about the case, declaring that it&#8217;s &#8220;going to be very difficult for the city to prevail in making a case my client should pay for overtime for a case ultimately dismissed by the state’s attorney,&#8221; and that it&#8217;s &#8220;ridiculous and a stretch to require him to do so.&#8221;
The city, which has made clear its determination to follow through on the case abruptly dropped by Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx, apparently feels otherwise. As for Foxx, two weeks ago, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, to lead the investigation into how Foxx&#8217;s office handled Smollett&#8217;s case.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50967/breaking-special-prosecutor-appointed-jussie-ryan-saavedra">Special Prosecutor Appointed In Jussie Smollett Investigation</a>

jussie_smollett_gi

Smollett Lawyers Make New Last-Ditch Argument To Try To Get Lawsuit Dismissed

Rahm Emanuel

Jussie Smollett&#8217;s PR team is now claiming that &#8220;every iota&#8221; of the disgraced actor&#8217;s story about being a victim of a hate crime at the hands of MAGA Trump supporters is true despite overwhelming evidence alleging the contrary.
According to the <a href="https://wtop.com/national/2019/08/pr-firm-every-iota-of-smollett-claim-true-police-differ/">Associated Press</a>, the PR team released a statement on Wednesday in response to the city of Chicago&#8217;s lawsuit against Smollett seeking to recoup the financial costs his investigation brought about. From the report:
<blockquote>A statement emailed Wednesday follows a city filing Monday defending its lawsuit seeking to recoup costs of investigating what it says was a January publicity stunt.
The statement says “every iota of information … Smollett has stated has been fully corroborated.”
The statement didn’t say what evidence allegedly backs Smollett’s claim that masked men hurling racist and homophobic insults beat him and looped a noose around his neck.
The city says GPS data, video and other evidence prove Smollett paid the men to fake a hate crime.</blockquote>
Earlier this year, the &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor claimed that he fell victim to a hate crime on one cold winter&#8217;s night in Chicago at the hands of two men who derided him with homophobic slurs and then yelled &#8220;this is MAGA country&#8221; before tying a noose around his neck. At first, the media took Smollett&#8217;s story at face-value until evidence quickly mounted that he had hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage the attack, supposedly in an effort to bolster his salary on the show.
After Jussie Smollet turned himself in to police for the felony charge of filing a false police report, the situation took a turn for the worse when the charges against were suddenly dropped by Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx, prompting outrage from both the Chicago P.D. and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In an obvious attempt to rectify the situation and regain city trust, a Chicago judge appointed a special prosecutor earlier this month to investigate the way his case was handled.
&#8220;Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb to the position to investigate the way the case was handled — specifically, why the 16 criminal charges against Smollett were dropped and to potentially reinstate the charges or even add additional charges against Smollett,&#8221; The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ryan Saavedra <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50967/breaking-special-prosecutor-appointed-jussie-ryan-saavedra">reported</a>.
Since the Smollett story became a national sensation, the hit show &#8220;Empire&#8221; has been canceled by FOX, leaving the actor&#8217;s career in virtual ruin. Speaking with Vulture back in June, the show&#8217;s creator, Lee Daniels, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48324/empire-creator-blames-hate-crime-hoaxer-jussie-paul-bois">admitted</a> that the actor&#8217;s antics played a part in &#8220;Empire&#8221; going off the air.
&#8220;I&#8217;m beyond embarrassed,&#8221; Daniels told Vulture. &#8220;I think that when it happened, I had a flash of me running from bullies. I had a flash of my whole life, of my childhood, my youth, getting beaten.&#8221;
Daniels added that his love for Smollett makes him feel &#8220;some doubt&#8221; at times that the actor indeed staged a fake hate crime against himself.
&#8220;Of course, there&#8217;s some doubt,&#8221; Daniels said. &#8220;I&#8217;m telling you that because I love him so much. That&#8217;s the torture that I&#8217;m in right now, because it&#8217;s literally if it were to happen to your son and your child, how would you feel? You would feel, Please, God, please let there be that glimmer of hope that there is some truth in this story. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s been so painful. It was a flood of pain.&#8221;
&#8220;We weren&#8217;t there. I can&#8217;t judge him,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s only for the f***ing lady or man with that black robe and God. I had to detach myself and stop calling him, because it was taking away the time I have for my kids, the time I have for my partner. It was affecting my spirit and other shows, everything.&#8221;

Jussie Smollett PR Team: ‘Every Iota’ Of Hate Crime Story Is True

A Chicago judge appointed a special prosecutor on Friday morning to lead the investigation into the handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb to the position to investigate the way the case was handled — specifically, why the 16 criminal charges against Smollett were dropped and to potentially reinstate the charges or even add additional charges against Smollett.
&#8220;Webb gained prominence for his lead role during the Operation Greylord investigations into judicial corruption in Cook County,&#8221; Fox 32 <a href="http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crime/dan-webb-named-special-prosecutor-in-smollett-case">reported</a>. &#8220;He served as special counsel in the Iran-Contra affair and was previously appointed by Judge Toomin in the death of David Koschman.&#8221;
Webb <a href="https://www.apnews.com/ff3ce9b576b842cb8282222086e9a2aa">told</a> reporters on Friday: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know where this case is going. The facts will take me where they take me.&#8221;
Toomin ruled that a special prosecutor was needed in the case because &#8220;Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx had no authority to hand [the case] off to her top deputy after announcing she recused herself,&#8221; CBS News Chicago <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/06/21/judge-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-jussie-smollett-case-prosecutor-could-reinstate-charges/">reported</a>.
&#8220;Foxx had been in contact with a Smollett relative and was approached by former first lady Michelle Obama&#8217;s one-time chief of staff on behalf of Smollett&#8217;s family,&#8221; Fox 6 <a href="https://fox6now.com/2019/08/23/special-prosecutor-named-to-look-into-jussie-smollett-case/">reported</a>. &#8220;Foxx also publicly wondered if her being black has anything to do with the criticism she has received.&#8221;
Smollett told police on January 29, that he was walking home late at night when two masked men attacked him while hurling racist and homophobic slurs at him. Smollett further alleged that one of the attackers told him that he was in &#8220;MAGA country.&#8221;
Weeks later, authorities claimed that Smollett paid two black friends $3,500 to help him stage the attack on himself because he was not satisfied with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jussie-smollett-empire-salary-compared-to-tv-highest-paid-actors-2019-2">earning</a> $65,000-$125,000 per episode of a TV show on which he starred.
In June, after Toomin ruled that a special prosecutor would be appointed in the case, the Chicago Police Department doubled down on its claim that Smollett &#8220;fabricated&#8221; the &#8220;incident.&#8221;
Anthony Guglielmi, chief communications officer for the Chicago Police Department, tweeted at the time: &#8220;We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett &amp; #ChicagoPolice will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChicagoPolice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChicagoPolice</a> will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor. <a href="https://t.co/bCDF0NYfzP">pic.twitter.com/bCDF0NYfzP</a>
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJGuglielmi/status/1142097063158718464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Special Prosecutor Appointed In Jussie Smollett Investigation

Former &#8220;Empire&#8221; star Jussie Smollett filed a motion Friday requesting that the court nullify an order last month assigning a special prosecutor to look into the handling of his case after its sudden dismissal by embattled State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx.
&#8220;Jussie Smollett, by his attorneys, Geragos &amp; Geragos, respectfully requests that this Court grant his Motion, vacate the June 21, 2019 Order, and deny the Petition to Appoint a Special Prosecutor,&#8221; reads the filing submitted by his attorneys, Mark Geragos and Tina Glandian, as reported by <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/07/jussie-smollett-opposition-filing-special-prosecutor-hate-crime-attack-empire-1202649049/">Deadline</a> Friday.
Last month, Judge Michael Toomin ruled that Foxx&#8217;s decision to appoint a member of her own office to oversee the case after she &#8220;withdrew&#8221; over potential conflicts of interest was not legal. Toom also empowered the special prosecutor to potentially bring charges against Smollett if the prosecutor has &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48708/breaking-special-prosecutor-approved-smollett-case-ryan-saavedra">reasonable grounds</a>&#8221; to suspect that the actor was guilty of criminal conduct.
In another passage of the filing highlighted by Deadline, Smollett&#8217;s lawyers state that if their request to drop the prosecutor altogether is denied, they want the scope of the investigation to be narrowed. &#8220;In the event the Court is not inclined to grant the Motion, Mr. Smollett, by his attorneys, Geragos &amp; Geragos, respectfully requests that the Court modify the June 21, 2019 Order to clarify that the special prosecutor may investigate and prosecute potential misconduct only, and may not further prosecute Mr. Smollett for the charges that were previously brought and dismissed against him,&#8221; the motion reads.
Toomin&#8217;s decision to appoint a special prosecutor came after Foxx abruptly — and without warning to other city officials — dropped all 16 felony charges against Smollett without requiring an admission of guilt or any additional recompense to the city. The move stunned other officials, including the chief of police and the mayor, and prompted rebukes from legal experts and other state&#8217;s attorneys.
Foxx&#8217;s office later admitted that they still believed the initial charges against Smollett were warranted and that they had confidence in the investigation of the Chicago Police Department, which determined that the actor staged a fake attack on himself.
But Smollett&#8217;s laywers now lay the blame fully on the two brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo — with whom police say he &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; the faux hate crime against himself — describing their testimony to police in the court filing as &#8220;self-serving.&#8221;
The actor&#8217;s lawyers also suggest that another potential conspirator might be involved. Deadline underscores that the actor&#8217;s lawyers &#8220;cite a possible helper of sorts in an unidentified and previous[ly] unmentioned third man, who witnesses supposedly claim was at the early morning scene.&#8221;
Meanwhile, Smollett&#8217;s two high-profile attorneys are facing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46316/brothers-who-helped-carry-out-alleged-hate-hoax-emily-zanotti">defamation suit</a> brought by the brothers, and Smollett faces a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45888/city-chicago-files-civil-suit-against-jussie-emily-zanotti">civil suit</a> from the City of Chicago for the $130,000 they say they wasted on investigating the staged &#8220;attack.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48820/chicago-police-release-footage-jussie-smollett-amanda-prestigiacomo">WATCH: Chicago Police Release Footage Of Jussie Smollett Post-&#8216;Attack&#8217; With Prop Noose</a>

Smollett Tries To Get Special Prosecutor Dropped, Blames Brothers, Makes New Claim

On Monday, the Chicago Police Department released bizarre footage of actor Jussie Smollett that was taken in the hours following his report that he was attacked by two Trump supporters for being gay and black in the streets of Chicago. That claim was eventually dismissed by Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson as an &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; attack.
In the released footage, Smollett is wearing white rope around his neck; the &#8220;Empire&#8221; star claimed his attackers tied a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him. CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jussie-smollett-new-police-video-shows-actor-with-rope-around-neck-in-alleged-hate-crime-hoax/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;I just wanted y&#8217;all to see,&#8221; Smollett is heard saying he touches the rope in the police body camera footage taken as officers respond to his home after the Jan. 29 report. He then begins to unwind the rope and says, &#8220;There&#8217;s bleach on me.&#8221; 
He&#8217;s later heard saying he doesn&#8217;t want to be filmed and the body camera is shut off.
</blockquote>
&#8220;Chicago Police enter Jussie Smollett&#8217;s home after report of racist and homophobic attack on Jan. 29. He&#8217;s still wearing a long white rope around his neck,&#8221; CBS Chicago reporter Megan Hickey captioned a tweet containing a portion of the released video.
WATCH:
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Chicago Police enter Jussie Smollett&#8217;s home after report of racist and homophobic attack on Jan. 29. He&#8217;s still wearing a long white rope around his neck. <a href="https://twitter.com/cbschicago?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cbschicago</a> <a href="https://t.co/OeGIjsT6gb">pic.twitter.com/OeGIjsT6gb</a>
&#8212; Megan Hickey (@MeganHickeyTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeganHickeyTV/status/1143281064913375232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
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On January 29, Smollett told police he was targeted in downtown Chicago at around 2:30 a.m. by two white Trump supporters for being gay and black, The Daily Wire previously reported. The actor said the two men recognized him from his show &#8220;Empire,&#8221; physically assaulted him, and called him a &#8220;n*****&#8221; and a &#8220;f*****.&#8221; They also allegedly tied a noose around his neck, poured bleach on him, and told him he was in &#8220;MAGA country&#8221; &#8212; a reference to Donald Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign slogan &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; &#8212; Smollett claimed.
About two weeks before the attack, the actor said he received a threatening letter containing suspicious white powder later identified as crushed Tylenol. The letter had the acronym &#8220;MAGA&#8221; written on the envelope and contained a drawing of a curly-haired stick-figure being hanged with a noose by another stick-figure. It also said in cutout magazine letters: &#8220;You will die black f***.&#8221;
The media and prominent Democrats immediately believed the story.
But after new evidence emerged, Smollett&#8217;s claims did not hold up, according to Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson, who told reporters the hate crime was an &#8221;orchestrated&#8221; hoax and the threatening letter was sent by Smollett to himself.
However, after some community service, Smollett was off the hook. That was, until Friday, when a Cook County, Illinois judge ruled that a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the alleged hate crime hoax, allowing charges to possibly be reinstated, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48708/breaking-special-prosecutor-approved-smollett-case-ryan-saavedra">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
CBS News Chicago <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/06/21/judge-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-jussie-smollett-case-prosecutor-could-reinstate-charges/">reported</a> that the judge made the ruling because &#8220;Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx had no authority to hand [the case] off to her top deputy after announcing she recused herself.&#8221;
TMZ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/06/21/jussie-smollett-special-prosecutor-prosecuted-judge-fake-attack/">noted</a> that the judge &#8220;used a nautical metaphor to describe the screw-ups&#8221; made by Foxx&#8217;s office, saying, &#8220;There was no master on the bridge to guide the ship as it floundered through unchartered waters. And it ultimately lost its bearings.&#8221;
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WATCH:
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WATCH: Chicago Police Release Footage Of Jussie Smollett Post-&#8216;Attack&#8217; With Prop Noose

A Cook County, Illinois judge has ruled that a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the alleged hate crime hoax case involving actor Jussie Smollett, which would allow charges to be reinstated against Smollett.
CBS News Chicago <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/06/21/judge-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-jussie-smollett-case-prosecutor-could-reinstate-charges/">reported</a> that the judge made the ruling because &#8220;Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx had no authority to hand [the case] off to her top deputy after announcing she recused herself.&#8221;
TMZ <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2019/06/21/jussie-smollett-special-prosecutor-prosecuted-judge-fake-attack/">noted</a> that the judge &#8220;used a nautical metaphor to describe the screw-ups&#8221; made by Foxx&#8217;s office, saying, &#8220;There was no master on the bridge to guide the ship as it floundered through unchartered waters. And it ultimately lost its bearings.&#8221;
&#8220;Smollett&#8217;s case in many ways was truly unique,&#8221; Judge Michael Toomin said, according to reporter Megan Crepeau. &#8220;A case that purported to have been brought and supervised by a prosecutor authorized to serve in the stead of the duly elected state&#8217;s attorney but in fact who was appointed to a fictitious office.&#8221;
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&#8220;Smollett&#8217;s case in many ways was truly unique &#8230; a case that purported to have been brought and supervised by a prosecutor authorized to serve in the stead of the duly elected state&#8217;s attorney but in fact who was appointed to a fictitious office.&#8221;
&#8212; Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) <a href="https://twitter.com/crepeau/status/1142084069884354561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Crepeau added: &#8220;The special prosecutor may further prosecute Smollett, and if they have &#8216;reasonable grounds to believe that any other criminal offense was committed &#8230; special prosecutor may commence the prosecution of any crime as may be suspected.'&#8221;
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The special prosecutor may further prosecute Smollett, and if they have &#8220;reasonable grounds to believe that any other criminal offense was committed &#8230; special prosecutor may commence the prosecution of any crime as may be suspected,&#8221; Toomin says
&#8212; Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) <a href="https://twitter.com/crepeau/status/1142085033773207552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Anthony Guglielmi, Chief Communications Officer for the Chicago Police Department, tweeted: &#8220;We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett &amp; #ChicagoPolice will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor.&#8221;
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We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChicagoPolice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChicagoPolice</a> will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor. <a href="https://t.co/bCDF0NYfzP">pic.twitter.com/bCDF0NYfzP</a>
&#8212; Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJGuglielmi/status/1142097063158718464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Special Prosecutor Approved In Smollett Case, Can Reinstate Charges

LGBT

Largely gone is the &#8220;I believe him&#8221; stance that some of the principal staff for &#8220;Empire&#8221; put up in the wake of Chicago police determining that actor Jussie Smollett staged a hate-crime against himself. Now, the show&#8217;s co-creator and executive producer Lee Daniels is blaming Smollett&#8217;s antics for the show&#8217;s cancelation on FOX.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/lee-daniels-in-conversation.html#_ga=2.156783547.121160589.1560178031-92502498.1559766468" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vulture</a>, Daniels admitted to being &#8220;beyond embarrassed&#8221; over the fact he initially supported Smollett&#8217;s claim of being attacked by two Trump supporters, who eventually turned out to be two black men that Smollett allegedly paid to stage an attack on him.
&#8220;I&#8217;m beyond embarrassed,&#8221; Daniels told Vulture. &#8220;I think that when it happened, I had a flash of me running from bullies. I had a flash of my whole life, of my childhood, my youth, getting beaten.&#8221;
Daniels admitted that his love for Smollett makes him feel &#8220;some doubt&#8221; at times that the actor indeed staged a fake hate crime against himself.
&#8220;Of course, there&#8217;s some doubt,&#8221; Daniels admitted. &#8220;I&#8217;m telling you that because I love him so much. That&#8217;s the torture that I&#8217;m in right now, because it&#8217;s literally if it were to happen to your son and your child, how would you feel? You would feel, Please, God, please let there be that glimmer of hope that there is some truth in this story. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s been so painful. It was a flood of pain.&#8221;
&#8220;We weren&#8217;t there. I can&#8217;t judge him,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s only for the f***ing lady or man with that black robe and God. I had to detach myself and stop calling him, because it was taking away the time I have for my kids, the time I have for my partner. It was affecting my spirit and other shows, everything.&#8221;
When Vulture asked if Daniels believed the Smollett scandal played a part in the show being canceled, he answered without hesitation: &#8220;Certainly, that played a major part.&#8221;
Of course, Smollett&#8217;s eventual expulsion from &#8220;Empire&#8221; did not come easy and undoubtedly caused stark division among the show&#8217;s creative talent. For instance, even as the Chicago police presented overwhelming evidence that Smollett staged a hate crime against himself, the show&#8217;s stars, including Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46395/heres-letter-empire-stars-sent-fox-demanding-james-barrett">supported him</a>.
&#8220;Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of &#8216;Empire,'&#8221; the actors said in a statement.
What made the letter especially stinging was the fact Smollett walked away from the charges scot-free when the office of Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx inexplicably <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/smollett-documents-show-prosecutors-debated-over-how-to-word-explanation-for-dropping-charges" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dropped all charges against</a> the actor, angering the Chicago Police Department.
&#8220;Throughout Empire&#8217;s five seasons working with Jussie and watching how he has conducted himself throughout this traumatic event, we have come to know not just the character Jussie portrays, but also truly come to know Jussie&#8217;s personal character,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;He is kind. He is compassionate. He is honest and above all he is filled with integrity.&#8221;
&#8220;He is also innocent and no longer subject to legal uncertainty with the criminal charges against him having been dropped,&#8221; it continued. &#8220;We are confident in his lawyer&#8217;s assurance that the case was dismissed because it would not have prevailed.&#8221;

‘Empire’ Creator Blames Jussie Smollett For Show&#8217;s Cancelation

On Tuesday, Lee Daniels, the co-creator of &#8220;Empire,&#8221;<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7106193/Lee-Daniels-confirms-Jussie-Smollett-not-return-Empire.html"> confirmed</a> that actor Jussie Smollett will not be on the show for its sixth and last season.
Daniels was responding to an article in Variety which intimated that Smollett would be back for the last half of the sixth season. Daniels tweeted, &#8220;This is not factual. Jussie will NOT be returning to Empire.&#8221;
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<a href="https://twitter.com/Variety?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Variety</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeOtterson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeOtterson</a> This is not factual. Jussie will NOT be returning to Empire. -LD
&#8212; lee daniels (@leedanielsent) <a href="https://twitter.com/leedanielsent/status/1136050996659007489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In its <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/jussie-smollett-empire-season-6-1203232805/">updated report</a> issued after Daniels&#8217; tweet, Variety reported of the production sources who had indicated Smollett would return, &#8220;The same production sources also note tensions were ratcheted up on set between the show&#8217;s primarily black cast members, who still believe Smollett is innocent, and the mostly white below-the-line crew, many of whom believe Smollett is guilty.&#8221;
The on-again, off-again reports of Smollett&#8217;s possible return included Fox Entertainment and 20th Century Fox TV issuing a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jussie-smollett-empire-renewed-season-6-fox">statement</a> in April saying, &#8220;By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett&#8217;s option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.fox5ny.com/good-day/lee-daniels-not-clear-if-jussie-smollett-returns-to-empire">Appearing</a> on the Fox morning show &#8220;Good Day New York&#8221; in April after the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Smollett for damages associated with the investigation into his actions, Daniels was asked if the lawsuit created any difficulties in bringing Smollett back on the show. He answered, &#8220;It&#8217;s causing a dilemma. We are in discussions about that right now.&#8221;
On April 19, members of the &#8220;Empire&#8221; cast <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/jussie-smollett-letter-scandal-1203197095/">wrote a letter</a> to Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier, Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment chair Dana Walden, Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn, &#8220;Empire&#8221; co-creators Daniels and Danny Strong, and other executive producers on the series, arguing, &#8220;Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire.&#8221;
In May, Fox reiterated that there were no plans to revivify Jamal Lyon, the character Smollett played. At roughly the same time, a spokesperson for Smollett told Fox, &#8220;We&#8217;ve been told that Jussie will not be on Empire in the beginning of the season but he appreciates they have extended his contract to keep Jamal&#8217;s future open. Most importantly he is grateful to Fox and Empire leadership, cast, crew and fans for their unwavering support.&#8221;
In mid-May, Fox Entertainment <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47100/empire-canceled-amid-ongoing-smollett-turmoil-james-barrett">announced </a>that the upcoming season of &#8220;Empire&#8221; would be its last. <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/05/empire-canceled-jussie-smollett-scandal-fox-upfronts-lee-daniels-1202613350/">Deadline</a> reported, &#8220;Just two weeks after the Charlie Collier-run Fox Entertainment renewed Lee Daniels and Danny Strong&#8217;s hip hop drama for a sixth season and showed controversy ladened Jussie Smollett towards the exit door, it was announced today on Fox&#8217;s Upfront call that the self described &#8216;groundbreaking cultural phenomenon&#8217; of Empire will be canceled once Season 6 is done.&#8221;
The most recent developments in the Smollett case came in late May, when a Chicago judge ruled in favor of media outlets who requested court documents and investigation records related to Smollett&#8217;s alleged fake hate crime. As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47614/chicago-judge-orders-jussie-smollett-case-file-emily-zanotti">The Daily Wire</a> reported:
<blockquote>
Smollett&#8217;s case files were sealed in the same hearing where the Cook County States Attorney announced that they would drop 17 felony counts against the &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor in return for approximately 16 hours of community service and a $10,000 check &#8212; the &#8220;down payment&#8221; Smollett left with the court when he was let out on bond.
</blockquote>

CONFIRMED: Jussie Smollett Will NOT Return To ‘Empire’

On Thursday, a Chicago judge ruled in favor of a collection of media outlets who requested court documents and investigation records related to &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor Jussie Smollett&#8217;s alleged fake hate crime, unsealing Smollett&#8217;s case file and granting reporters access to the full trove.
<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/5/23/18637218/judge-unseals-records-jussie-smollett-case">The Chicago Sun-Times</a> &#8212; one of the papers requesting access to the Smollett file &#8212; reported that the Cook County judge, Steven Watkins, ordered the documents unsealed because Smollett and his attorneys had &#8220;not shown good cause to rebut the public presumption of access.&#8221;
Smollett&#8217;s case files were sealed in the same hearing where the Cook County States Attorney announced that they would drop 17 felony counts against the &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor in return for approximately 16 hours of community service and a $10,000 check &#8212; the &#8220;down payment&#8221; Smollett left with the court when he was let out on bond.
Smollett was, of course, not required to admit that he was guilty of orchestrating an alleged &#8220;hate attack&#8221; on himself that took place in the early hours of January 29. The 17 charges stem from two interactions Smollett had with police following the attack, and Smollett was hit with one felony count of obstructing justice for each statement made to investigators that a grand jury believed was a lie.
It&#8217;s Smollett&#8217;s actions in the wake of the &#8220;deal&#8221; with prosecutors that seem to have convinced Judge Watkins to allow the Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, and others access to the full case file, including an interview Smollett gave proclaiming his own innocence, shortly after his appearance in court.
&#8220;Smollett voluntarily appeared on national television speaking about the incident in detail,&#8221; Watkins said. &#8220;After the March dismissal, he stood in front of numerous cameras&#8230; in the courthouse lobby speaking about the case.&#8221;
&#8220;These are not the actions of a person seeking simply to maintain his privacy or simply to be let alone,&#8221; Watkins added.
Watkins did not accept Smollett&#8217;s attorneys&#8217; arguments that their client was entitled to a &#8220;right to privacy,&#8221; adding that the public interest, in this case, outweighed the need to keep the documents sealed.
The court did not give a timeline, Thursday, for when the Smollett case files would be released or what they would contain. The Chicago Police Department has already released a number of documents related to their investigation into whether Smollett was involved in his own attack, but the court file will likely cover what was given to the prosecutor&#8217;s office and contain documents filed in relation to Smollett&#8217;s alleged &#8220;plea deal.&#8221;
Although the actor himself has sort of faded from the limelight since the case concluded &#8212; the show &#8220;Empire&#8221; will run for one more season, but Smollett&#8217;s character will not return &#8212; the Smollett case exposed a series of bizarre policies at work inside the Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney&#8217;s office. In addition to what appears to be preferred treatment given to Smollett, a celebrity, Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx is now accused of agreeing to lenient sentences in a variety of cases, in the name of a more &#8220;progressive&#8221; approach to justice.
In one case, Foxx&#8217;s office appears to have allowed a violent offender to end his own probation and house arrest simply by disabling his ankle monitor. That offender then went on to murder an off-duty Chicago police officer and severely wound another.

Chicago Judge Orders Jussie Smollett Case File, Records Unsealed

A Chicago alderman was arrested Tuesday night for filing a false police report about the theft of a car, leaving many Chicago city officials wondering if he&#8217;ll be given the same generous deal for his alleged crimes that &#8220;Empire&#8221; star Jussie Smollett received for his.
Alderman Proco &#8220;Joe&#8221; Moreno was arrested Tuesday evening on charges of insurance fraud and obstruction of justice/filing a false police report for &#8220;mistakenly&#8221; &#8212; he claims &#8212; reporting his Audi stolen by an unknown female, <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/05/14/ald-joe-moreno-arrested-police-say/?fbclid=IwAR0srI_vbbj4rk5h-YmCZ-n2ts7ZGCw0pb9M6UTgDXxMhr5dhaCzRmrcqkM">Block Club Chicago reports</a>.
Moreno filed a police report for the stolen vehicle with the Chicago Police Department and, apparently, made a claim for the missing car to his insurance. The woman who &#8220;stole&#8221; the car, a single mother who had been on a date with the alderman, says Moreno allowed her to borrow the car to run errands but instead reported it stolen while it was in her possession.
Moreno claims the incident was a &#8220;misunderstanding.&#8221;
&#8220;On May 14, 2019, offender Moreno was placed in custody on charges of insurance fraud and obstruction of justice in relation to a police report Moreno filed on January 4, 2019 in which Moreno claimed his vehicle had allegedly been stolen,&#8221; Chicago police said in a statement. &#8220;Offender was charged accordingly and will appear in Bond Court today. No further information.&#8221;
Moreno was released on his own reconnaissance Wednesday morning.
Since &#8220;Empire&#8221; star Jussie Smollett received a &#8220;plea deal&#8221; for his alleged role in a fake hate crime, Chicago residents and city officials have been wondering how similar cases of defendants charged with filing a false police report would play out. Smollett, of course, was charged with obstruction of justice for his role in allegedly orchestrating a hate crime attack against himself and then giving seemingly false information to police officers investigating the crime during two separate interviews, one directly after the hate crime occurred, and one a day later.
Smollett was able to discharge those 17 felony counts of obstruction of justice by agreeing to forfeit a $10,000 bond payment and do around 16 hours of community service at Jessie Jackson&#8217;s Rainbow PUSH headquarters on the city&#8217;s south side. Although the Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney&#8217;s office claimed the &#8220;deal&#8221; did not grant Smollett innocence, Smollett repeatedly told press that he&#8217;d been proclaimed innocent of all charges.
The incident triggered an investigation into Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx&#8217;s office, and how the progressive Foxx handles criminal cases. Just a week after the Smollett deal was inked, a violent criminal, allowed to go free by Foxx&#8217;s office after destroying his home monitoring ankle bracelet, shot two off-duty Chicago police officers, killing one and putting the other into critical condition.
Last week, a suburban Chicago woman <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/jussie-smollett-plea-deal-home-depot-worker-judge-candace-clark/">made her own case in court</a> that she should be treated for her minor crime the way Jussie Smollett was treated. The argument earned her the sympathy of the judge, who denounced the unofficial Smollett plea deal in open court, and earned her free representation from a noted Chicago criminal defense attorney.
Moreno&#8217;s case may be the best test case to see if prosecutors extend the same courtesy to high profile defendants who aren&#8217;t television stars.

Chicago Alderman Arrested For Filing A False Police Report. Will He Get The &#8216;Smollett Deal&#8217;?

A few weeks after several of the stars of Fox&#8217;s hit television series &#8220;Empire&#8221; wrote a letter to executives and producers demanding the return of embattled actor Jussie Smollett, Fox Entertainment announced that this upcoming season will be the scandal-damaged show&#8217;s last.
&#8220;Just two weeks after the Charlie Collier-run Fox Entertainment renewed Lee Daniels and Danny Strong&#8217;s hip hop drama for a sixth season and showed controversy ladened Jussie Smollett towards the exit door, it was announced today on Fox&#8217;s Upfront call that the self described &#8216;groundbreaking cultural phenomenon&#8217; of Empire will be canceled once Season 6 s done,&#8221; <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/05/empire-canceled-jussie-smollett-scandal-fox-upfronts-lee-daniels-1202613350/">Deadline</a> reports.
Collier told the press in a call announcing the end of the series that they plan to &#8220;go out guns a blazing.&#8221; However, when asked about the prospect of Smollett returning, the CEO said that while they have &#8220;an option&#8221; to reinstate him, they have &#8220;no plans&#8221; for that. &#8220;There&#8217;s an option to have Jussie in the series but we have no plans for that,&#8221; said Collier, Deadline notes.
The announcement of the show&#8217;s demise follows a series of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44944/update-things-go-bad-worse-empire-after-smollett-james-barrett">ratings setbacks</a> and ugly headlines starring the former star Smollett. The actor and singer was initially charged by Chicago prosecutors with multiple felony counts for allegedly faking a hate crime against himself that he blamed on Trump supporters before the Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney inexplicably dropped all charges, prompting more outrage from the public as well as key Chicago officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Chief Eddie Johnson.
Though Chicago prosecutors have made clear that the evidence against Smollett is convincing and the City of Chicago is currently suing Smollett for the $130,000, Smollett&#8217;s fellow &#8220;Empire&#8221; cast members wrote a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46395/heres-letter-empire-stars-sent-fox-demanding-james-barrett">letter</a> on April 24 to showrunners and studio execs declaring the actor &#8220;innocent and no longer subject to legal uncertainty&#8221; and demanding his reinstatement.
&#8220;Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire,&#8221; Smollett&#8217;s fellow &#8220;Empire&#8221; stars Terrence Howard, Taraji Henson, Bryshere Gray, Trai Byers, Gabourey Sidibe, and Nicole Ari Parker wrote. &#8220;We understand the past months have been difficult to process&#8212;sometimes the headlines brought more confusion than clarity, yet we now have a conclusion to this ordeal. Throughout Empire&#8217;s five seasons working with Jussie and watching how he has conducted himself throughout this traumatic event, we have come to know not just the character Jussie portrays, but also truly come to know Jussie&#8217;s personal character. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is honest and above all he is filled with integrity. He is also innocent and no longer subject to legal uncertainty with the criminal charges against him having been dropped. We are confident in his lawyer&#8217;s assurance that the case was dismissed because it would not have prevailed.&#8221;
The letter was sent just days after the City of Chicago&#8217;s Law Department filed a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/45888/city-chicago-files-civil-suit-against-jussie-emily-zanotti">civil lawsuit</a> against Smollett for $130,106.15 for resources they say he wasted by filing his false &#8220;hate crime&#8221; report. &#8220;This follows his refusal to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on January 29, 2019,&#8221; a spokesman told the press.
The lawsuit stems from Smollett&#8217;s claim that on January 29, 2019, he was attacked by two white Trump supporters who hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him, assaulted him, threw an unknown substance on him, and tied a rope around his neck. But after police gathered overwhelming evidence indicating that Smollett had &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; the fake &#8220;hate crime&#8221; against himself with the help of his two personal trainers, a grand jury slapped the actor with 16 felony counts for filing the false report.
Though the state&#8217;s attorney&#8217;s office says the evidence against Smollett was solid, prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges in late March, accepting his $10,000 bond and past community service as part of a &#8220;modified plea bargain.&#8221; Smollett, who was not required to admit responsibility in the highly unusual deal, has since proclaimed the decision as evidence that he is innocent.
But Chicago&#8217;s Law Department says otherwise in its complaint against the actor, whom officials say &#8220;knew his attackers and orchestrated the purported attack himself.&#8221;
&#8220;Later, when police confronted him with evidence about his attackers, he still refused to disclose his involvement in planning the attack,&#8221; reads the complaint filed in mid-April. &#8220;On the evening of January 28, 2019, Defendant&#8217;s flight into Chicago was delayed, and he called Abel (Osundairo) telling him he needed to delay the staged attack, and Abel agreed,&#8221; the city says, citing evidence gathered by investigators. The Osundairo brothers told investigators Smollett wanted to stage the attack because &#8220;he was unhappy with the way his employers handled the racist and homophobic letter he had allegedly received and as a result wanted to stage an attack,&#8221; the city says.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46540/chicago-prosecutor-kim-foxx-deputies-subpoenaed-emily-zanotti">Chicago Prosecutor Kim Foxx, Deputies Subpoenaed Over Jussie Smollett Case</a>

&#8216;Empire&#8217; Canceled Amid Ongoing Smollett Turmoil

Though Jussie Smollett is currently being sued by the City of Chicago after apparently orchestrating a racially-charged hate crime hoax, the actor&#8217;s future on Fox Entertainment&#8217;s hit show &#8220;Empire&#8221; is not over.
&#8220;By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett&#8217;s option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to &#8216;Empire,'&#8221; a statement from Fox Entertainment and 20th Century Fox TV said, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jussie-smollett-empire-renewed-season-6-fox">according</a> to Fox News.
A representative for Smollett went as far as to suggest the actor would be coming back to appear on the show in due time, presumably when the alleged hate crime hoax blows over.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been told that Jussie will not be on Empire in the beginning of the season but he appreciates they have extended his contract to keep Jamal&#8217;s future open,&#8221; a spokesperson for the actor said. &#8220;Most importantly he is grateful to Fox and Empire leadership, cast, crew and fans for their unwavering support.&#8221;
As noted by Fox News, Smollett was recently spotted in Hollywood grabbing lunch with &#8220;Empire&#8221; showrunner Brett Mahoney, only lending more credence to the rumors of an eventual return of Jamal.
In January, Smollett claimed he was targeted by two white Trump supporters in the streets of downtown Chicago around 2:30 a.m. for being gay and black. The men, according to the TV star, physically assaulted him, called him the N-word and a &#8220;f****t,&#8221; doused him with a bleach-like substance, and tied a noose around his neck.
Journalists and pundits in the mainstream media were quick to report the horrifying, though dubious report without an ounce of skepticism, and high-profile Democrats pounced on Smollett&#8217;s claims, which they apparently viewed as an opportunity to own President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA), for example, wrote in a since-deleted tweet: &#8220;The racist, homophobic attack on [Jussie Smollett] is an affront to our humanity. No one should be attacked for who they are or whom they love. I pray that Jussie has a speedy recovery &amp; that justice is served. May we all commit to ending this hate once and for all.&#8221;
&#8220;There is no such thing as &#8216;racially charged.&#8217; This attack was not &#8216;possibly&#8217; homophobic. It was a racist and homophobic attack. If you don&#8217;t like what is happening to our country, then work to change it. It is no one&#8217;s job to water down or sugar-coat the rise of hate crimes,&#8221; posted Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on January 30.
&#8220;The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s safe,&#8221; said Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). &#8220;To those in Congress who don&#8217;t feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime&#8211; I urge you to pay attention.&#8221;
And the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43604/here-are-all-top-democrats-tweets-about-jussie-amanda-prestigiacomo">list</a> goes on.
But soon evidence from the Chicago Police Department revealed that the &#8220;attack&#8221; was apparently orchestrated by Smollett, who was eventually charged with filing a false report and hit with 16 other felony charges. Those charges, however, were abruptly and controversially dropped by Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney Kim Foxx&#8217;s office.
Smollett is now faced with a lawsuit from the City of Chicago, wherein the city&#8217;s Law Department is seeking damages from the actor in the amount of $130,106.15.

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President Trump Compares Impeachment To Jussie Smollett ‘Scam’ In Chicago Speech