With no previous indication that this was planned, Cook County had all charges against Jussie Smollett dismissed:
This has got to be the weirdest true crime case in the history of crime.
WTF? The two brothers admitted that he paid them to do this, and now the lawyer is talking about how these were “tragic” charges against this guy? Somebody got paid.
He apparently forfeited his bond and had community service, so it sounds more like some sort of plea deal than an actual vindication, although of course his lawyers are spinning it as exactly that. I have no understanding of what actually happened here, even after reading three different articles on it this morning.
The article on Foxnews.com had this to say:
“Doubt was cast on the open-and-shut nature of the case when Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham wrote the Justice Department following reports that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx asked Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to let the FBI investigate Smollett’s allegations that he was attacked by two masked men after the former chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama allegedly informed Foxx that Smollett’s family had concerns about the probe”
Can anybody follow that?
:shrugs: He still did it.
Regards,
Shodan
My jaw just dropped. And in other news, the murders of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman are still unsolved.
Assuming that it was, in fact, a plea deal. I wonder if it can or would be reversed if he or his lawyers start trashing the police in the media.
"Moments after Judge Steven Watkins allowed the dismissal, attorneys for Smollett issued a statement.
“Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him,” the statement said. “Jussie was attacked by two people he was unable to identify on January 29th.”
Wow, they’re still going with “it actually happened”.
I figured if he plead guilty and repaid the cost of the investigation then they’d work with him. Surprising, for sure.
Here’s my take: the Smollett family was concerned about the validity of the local police investigation, so the State’s Attorney wanted to call in the FBI. The head of the police union wrote to the Justice Department objecting to any criticism being directed towards the local police investigation. The State’s Attorney’s desire to call in the FBI is casting doubt on the iron-clad nature of the local police case against Mr. Smollett. Mention of Michelle Obama is just gratuitous Obama-bashing by Fox and is irrelevant.
Is this some kind of English assignment? That sentence is almost as confusing as… well, as the case.
No surprise here, rich and famous people have their own special rights when it comes to the judicial system.
I mean, the attack was clearly a hoax, but maybe a hoax organized outside of his knowledge? It’s easy to say, ‘he told us to do it,’ when you’re caught and desperately looking for an out.
Sounds like what Robert Kraft was offered
Smolett’s family is influential in politics. One of their friends is Tina Tchen, who was the chief of staff to Ms Obama.
Ms Tchen asked Kim Foxx to ask the FBI to take over the case because the family had concerns with how the police department was handling it. When news of this got out, Mr Graham wrote the Justice Department that the police were doing a fine job and the FBI was not needed.
Nothing like it. The charges were totally dismissed, he’s not in any jeopardy at the moment. Obviously there will be more to this story.
From TMZ:
It was a $100,000 bond that he forfeited. That’s not trivial or pocket change, even for Smollett.
The article says $10,000. Still a lot, but very bizarre. The state prosecutor has said that he already performed community service but there’s no record of that. If they dismissed all charges because he’s innocent why would he forfeit the bond?
He could have given $10,000 of his own money to a bail bonder, who “temporarily” came up with the rest of it,and now presumably the bonder will want the rest of the money…
Thanks! I misread that amount, apparently. Still…even $10K is a weird amount to just give up if the CPD would really have no case against him.