Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has told Trump to ‘sit out’ the Jussie Smollett fallout after the president called it an’ embarrassment to our nation’.
In an interview on Thursday, Emanuel – who is furious about the Smollett outcome – said he did not want the president’s interference because of his past remarks on race relations.
He also revealed that he would be sending Smollett a bill to recoup some of the money spent on the investigation into the allegedly staged attack and that the city’s lawyers were in the process of totaling up the final cost.
The city’s lawyers are still totaling up the amount that was spent but he said on Wednesday that it was be around $150,000, 15 times what Smollett paid.
‘The police are right now finalizing the cost that was used, police resources to come to the understanding this was a hoax and not a real hate crime…once they have the finalized and feel good about the numbers, will then send a letter to Jussie Smollett and his attorneys, trying to recoup those costs for the city,’ Emanuel told radio station WGN.
His hope, he said, was to finally hold Smollett accountable for the crime but the star’s attorneys have hit back and say he has already ‘paid enough’.
‘It is the Mayor and the Police Chief who owe Jussie – owe him an apology – for dragging an innocent man’s character through the mud.
‘Jussie has paid enough,’ they said.
Rahm Emanuel said the city is putting together a bill for Jussie Smollett a bill for the police probe into the hate crime he reported on January 29
Trump called the decision by local prosecutors ‘outrageous.’ It was not entirely clear if he was demanding further investigation or calling for new activity. Emanuel told him to ‘just sit this one out’
Emanuel wants him not only to pay because the city is out of pocket but because he says it will finally show some accountability on the actor’s part.
‘It is a small way of both acknowledging, one, guilt, two, that we spent these resources and the taxpayers deserve, at minimum — because I think there’s a whole other level of ethical costs, because he’s still walking around, ‘Hey, I’m innocent, everything I said from day one is true’ — that actually we’re going to get the resources back,’ he added.
Smollett, 36, flew back to Los Angeles on Wednesday after spending the night in Chicago following the bombshell development in the case.
He agreed to forfeit $10,000 in bond to have the charges dropped and completed 16 hours of community service, something he says was voluntary but which prosecutors say was part of their deal.
This email was leaked on Wednesday which shows Foxx scrambling to find other examples to back up her office’s decision on Smollett
Mayor Emanuel said after the charges were dropped on Tuesday that that $10,000 does not come close to covering the total cost of the investigation into the January 29 hate crime he is accused of staging.
The real figure, he said, was closer to $150,000.
Emanuel has condemned the state’s attorney for her handling of the case.
His distaste for Trump stems from the president’s comments about the 2017 Charlottesville riots where he said both the right-wing protesters and counter protesters were alike.
‘The fact is, you’re a guy, 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,’ Emanuel said, explaining his comment about Trump.
Kim Foxx, the embattled Cook County State’s Attorney who recused herself from the in February after exchanging text messages with one of his relatives but never appointed a special prosecutor, is also scrambling to find examples to justify the decision.
In a series of interviews on Wednesday, she said that what had been agreed between his team and hers was what is known as ‘alternative prosecution’ whereby a defendant agrees to a certain set of term and has the case dropped in exchange.
Kim Foxx, the recused Cook County State’s Attorney who is facing scrutiny for her handling of the Jussie Smollett case, stood by her office’s decision on Wednesday and said Smollett got off because it was the lowest class of felony and he has no criminal background
Foxx dismissed the public outcry around it and said only the people ‘in the weeds’ of the justice system would understand that it was actually commonplace and had happened thousands of times before.
There was no such explanation for it on Tuesday, when she stayed quiet and put Joseph Magats, her assistant who ultimately signed off on the decision, in front of cameras to try to address the many questions surrounding the case.
But Wednesday, Foxx sent an email to staff asking for them to come up with examples to prove her story.
Smollett’s attorneys are still maintaining his innocence.
In an interview on Today, Tina Glandian claimed that Smollett did not recognize the Abel and Ola Osundairo when they attacked him on January 29 and that it still has not been proven that it was them, despite the fact that Smollett identified a photograph of the pair as his attackers before he was ever arrested and even though they had just been on the phone with him.
When he learned it was them once they were in custody, Glandian said, Smollett ‘found it hard to believe’ because he had told that he could make out one had ‘pale or white skin’ around his eyes beneath the ski mask he was wearing.
It was not a lie, she insisted, adding that the reason for it could have been that the brothers were in ‘disguise’.
‘He did tell police that from what he saw, he thought it was white or pale skin, that’s what he initially said.
‘Obviously, you can disguise that. You can put make-up on,’ she said.
She went on to point to a 2016 YouTube video of Abel Osundairo, the brother in question, where he is wearing white make-up to perform a Joker monologue as potential proof of her theory.
Jussie Smollett’s lawyer Tina Glandian suggested on Thursday that the reason he told police his Nigerian attackers were white was because they ‘might have been wearing white face’ and had disguised themselves. Her evidence of the theory is 2016 video of Abel Osundairo (right) dressed up as the Joker