Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the city plans to try to recoup the money it spent on the Jussie Smollett investigation from the Empire actor himself.
Emanuel spoke Thursday (March 28) on WGN radio, saying the Chicago Police Department is figuring out how much money it spent investigating Smollett’s allegation that he was the victim of a racial and homophobic attack. The mayor says once city attorneys finalize the number, the city will contact Smollett and his attorneys.
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Prosecutors offered little explanation and infuriated Chicago’s police chief and mayor when they dropped felony charges that alleged Smollett made a false police report. Prosecutors still insist the actor faked the attack. Smollett says the attack was real.
Emanuel called the decision to drop the case “a whitewash of justice.” He told WGN radio that taxpayers should get their resources back. Emanuel says if Smollett makes the payment, it would be “a small way of” acknowledging guilt.
In other news in the fast-moving fallout from the prosecutor’s office’s decision, the ex-chief of staff for former first lady Michelle Obama says she approached Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx regarding the Smollett case on behalf of the actor’s family.
Tina Tchen released a statement Wednesday saying she’s a friend of Smollett’s family and knows Foxx “from prior work together.”
Tchen says her “sole activity” was to put the prosecutor in touch with “an alleged victim’s family.” Tchen says the Smollett family “had concerns about how the investigation was being characterized in public.”
Email and text messages that Foxx’s office provided to the Chicago Sun-Times show Tchen contacted Foxx to set up a telephone conversation with a Smollett relative. Foxx told the Sun-Times the relative expressed concerns over leaked information. Foxx on Wednesday told the Chicago Tribune she regretted dealing with the Smollett relative in the investigation’s early phases.
Also on Thursday, Pres. Trump tweeted about prosecutors’ decision to drop all charges against Smollett, calling it “an embarrassment” and suggesting that the FBI and the Department of Justice would review it. “FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago,” Trump said in an early morning tweet. “It is an embarrassment to our Nation!”