The demand that “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett pay Chicago back for an alleged hate crime hoax despite being cleared of criminal charges punctuated an increasingly heated war of words Thursday that stretched to the White House and New York, reports The Chicago Tribune.
The day began with President Donald Trump tweeting that the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI were “to review” what happened in the Smollett investigation, which ended in stunning fashion Tuesday when Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges alleging he’d staged a racist and homophobic attack on himself.
After Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he was going to try to force Smollett to pony up for the costs of the police investigation, Smollett’s lawyers countered by saying city officials were the ones who owed an apology.
And from New York, Smollett’s attorney, Mark Geragos, in town for a trial, accused Emanuel of “acting literally unhinged” in his criticism of Smollett, saying the investigation was fatally flawed and was dropped because it was “going to become embarrassing.”
The developments indicated that the fallout from the politically charged case — which has captured worldwide attention since the attack was first reported two months ago — may be far from over.
State’s Attorney Kim Foxx continued to take heat for her office’s handling of the case as two prosecutors’ associations blasted the secretive fashion in which the case was resolved.
After Trump tweeted earlier in the morning that he would tell the FBI to investigate how Smollett’s charges were dropped, Emanuel, appearing on WGN 720 AM, called on the president to “just sit this out.”
Mayor @RahmEmanuel tells @CochranShow that Chicago will bill #JussieSmollett for the costs of his investigation and requests that President @realDonaldTrump "sit this one out." Hear it here: https://t.co/8W6Xh527yr pic.twitter.com/2tAVFNaKlc— WGN Radio 720 (@WGNRadio) March 28, 2019
“… I take umbrage that you have a person sitting in the Oval Office who drew a moral equivalency in Virginia between those who were fighting bigotry and those who were perpetuating bigotry,” said Emanuel, citing Trump’s reaction to a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Hours later, the city notified Smollett’s attorneys by letter of its demand he pay $130,106 — the cost of the police overtime hours expended in the investigation.
If Smollett does not pay, the letter warned, the city “may prosecute you for making a false statement to the city.”
No comments:
Post a Comment