Donald Trump asks FBI to investigate Jussie Smollett case

Donald Trump asks the FBI to investigate while Jussie Smollett is ordered to pay for police overtime.

Donald Trump has asked the FBI to probe the Jussie Smollett.

Donald Trump has asked federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the Jussie Smollett case, while Chicago sent the actor a letter seeking $US130,000 ($184,000) in overtime for detectives who worked on the case — and threatened legal action for untimely payment.

Earlier this week, prosecutors dropped 16 charges alleging the actor had staged a hate crime with himself as the victim, an outcome that has sharply divided police and prosecutors in Chicago and left many across the country confused and angry.

“I think the case in Chicago is an absolute embarrassment to our country, and I have asked that they look at it,” Mr Trump said, referring to federal law enforcement officials, in an interview with reporters on the White House lawn. Earlier, he said on Twitter he wanted federal authorities to investigate.

FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. It is an embarrassment to our Nation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019

The national and Chicago offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Justice Department, declined to comment on whether they are investigating the case.

The city released a copy of a letter it had sent Smollett and his legal team seeking repayment for the police overtime.

More than two dozen detectives and police officers spent weeks reviewing video and physical evidence as part of their investigation into the alleged attack reported by Smollett on January 29, according to the letter sent by the city’s Department of Law.

“Ultimately, the Chicago police investigation revealed that you knowingly filed a false police report and had in fact orchestrated your own attack,” a lawyer wrote in the letter. “The City requires immediate payment of the $US130,106.15 expended on overtime hours in the investigation of this matter.”

Smollett was given seven days to pay under the threat of further legal actions and fines.

In a news conference, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans to seek the money from Smollett.

“When he writes the check, in the memo section he can write, ‘I’m accountable for the hoax,’” Mr Emanuel said.

Representatives for Smollett, a star of the Empire television series on Fox, said the $US10,000 bond the actor agreed to forfeit was payment enough.

“It is the Mayor and the Police Chief who owe Jussie — owe him an apology — for dragging an innocent man’s character throughthe mud,” they said in a statement.

The actor, who is black and gay, and his lawyers claimed complete vindication when the charges were dismissed on Tuesday, but prosecutors said that they hadn’t exonerated him. Instead, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said it had dropped thecharges as a routine matter because he had no felonies or anything violent in his record. They said he had agreed to surrender the $US10,000 bond payment and do 16 hours of community service.

His lawyers and publicists denied that the 16 hours he served at Rev Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition was part of any deal with prosecutors.

Mr Emanuel called the decision to drop the charges and seal the court file a “whitewash of justice.” Both police and prosecutorssaid they stood behind the investigative work, which turned Smollett’s complaint of being attacked early on January 29 by what he said were two racist, antigay and apparently pro-Trump men into a case against the actor for allegedly filing a false police report.

The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police submitted a letter to the US lawyer in the Northern District of Illinois asking for an investigation into the handling of the case.

Kevin Graham, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he hadn’t yet received a response to his request for an investigation. “The FBI has not contacted me and has not sent any paperwork in my direction,” he said.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in media interviews defended her decision to recuse herself from the case and said the decision to drop the charges had been made by Joseph Magats, the first assistant Cook County state’s attorney. Mr Magats stressed that the office was focused on combating violent crimes.

Ms Foxx in February said she was stepping aside “out of an abundance of caution” after speaking with a Smollett family member and helping facilitate a connection for the family with investigators.

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal