Even though the prosecution dropped charges against Jussie Smollett, the first assistant state’s attorney says he still believes that the Empire actor lied to police about incident.
Joe Magats, the prosecutor who dropped the charges against Smollett, says that dropping the case shouldn’t be an indication that the actor is innocent.
“We believe he did what he was charged with doing,” Margats told a CNN affiliate. “This was not an exoneration. To say he was exonerated by us or anyone else is not true.”
The prosecutor goes on to say that “over 5,700 [cases] that have gotten some type of alternative or deferred type of prosecution involving a dismissal at the end of the case,” and that the rumor that new evidence was found to prove Smollett’s innocence is “not true.”
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has had his own lengthy, corrupt history in the Windy City, blasted the Empire actor for filing a false hate crime report and calls the entire case a “whitewash of justice.”
“A grand jury saw the evidence (and) realized this was a hoax — a hoax on the city, a hoax on hate crimes, a hoax on people of good values who actually were empathetic at first,” the Mayor said. “And he used that empathy for only one reason … himself.”
According to Magats, Smollett is giving up his $10,000 bond and will complete 16 hours of community service in exchange for the dropped charges.
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