Jojo Smollett insists that his brother, Jussie, is innocent.
Jojo mentioned that the Chicago Police Department has a long history in handling cases wrongly.
Smollett, known for starring in “Empire,” claimed that at around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, during a polar vortex, he was attacked by two white supporters of President Donald Trump. During his return from a Subway sandwich shop, Smollett said that the men tied a rope around his neck and poured bleach in his eyes while shouting slurs and a pro-Trump statement.
A weeklong investigation led to Chicago police detectives arresting two black brothers, one had been hired by Smollett as his trainer. After several days in custody, the brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo, confessed to detectives that Smollett paid them $3,500 to help him fake a hate crime.
Smollett was arrested in mid-February on charges of filing a false police report.
Jojo claims at the end of his essay, “One important note, the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department announced publicly that Jussie’s motive in staging an attack was so he could make more money from ‘Empire.’ Fox immediately said that wasn’t true but the police chief never withdrew his accusation. The chief also stated as fact that Jussie had sent himself the threatening letter that arrived at the ‘Empire’ production offices weeks before the attack. The FBI then refuted this claim. Again, the chief did not correct his accusations. Letting it float for the public to either believe or not.”
Kim Foxx, the lead prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, now claims that the case was not solid and that public statements by officials led to her office’s unusual agreement with the actor.
But all charges against Smollett were inexplicably dropped against the actor on March 26, a decision heavily criticized by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, and the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association. President Donald Trump said the FBI and Department of Justice will review the unusual agreement, which didn’t include Smollett admitting to any wrongdoing.
Foxx initially said she’d recused herself from the case but later said she had merely “separated” from it, and an assistant district attorney in her office was put forward as the man who made the decision to drop the charges. That prosecutor, Joe Magats, said that the case against Smollett was solid, noting, “We didn’t exonerate him.”
Magats was asked by a CBS reporter if he believed that Smollett was guilty, replied, “Yes.”