CHICAGO _ Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he will try to get "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett to pay Chicago back for the costs of the investigation into his claim that he was the victim of a hate crime attack, saying paying the money would be an implicit admission he was guilty of a hoax.
Appearing on WGN Radio on Thursday morning, Emanuel also called on President Donald Trump to "just sit this one out," after Trump tweeted Thursday morning that he would tell the FBI to investigate how Smollett's charges were dropped.
"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 of Trump and his reaction to a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
The city sent a letter to Smollett through his attorneys Thursday, demanding he pay $130,106 "expended on overtime hours in the investigation of this matter."
If Smollett does not pay, the letter states the city "may prosecute you for making a false statement to the city."
"The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department take seriously those who make false statements to the police, thereby diverting resources from other investigations and undermining the criminal justice system," the letter signed by Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel reads in part. "On January 29, 2019, you made a police report in which you falsely claimed that two men had attacked you while yelling racial and homophobic slurs."
Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said the city wasn't committing to such a lawsuit. But he said the city has "a lengthy and successful track record" of recovering funds under a statute that makes a person liable for costs the city incurred to provide services related to the person's violation of the law.
"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. But come with those resources is, implicitly, if you pay it, that the city spent money to uncover what the grand jury discovered," Emanuel said earlier.
Smollett's defense team released a statement later: "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."
Emanuel went on the radio two days after Cook County prosecutors abruptly dropped a 16-count indictment accusing Smollett of orchestrating a Jan. 29 racist and homophobic attack on himself to advance his career. In dismissing the case, prosecutors said they had cut a deal with the actor to perform two days of community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the city of Chicago.
The unusual move allowed Smollett's attorneys to get his criminal case sealed, catching Chicago police brass by surprise and bringing swift condemnation from Emanuel, who called it a "whitewash of justice."
Smollett, who is African-American and openly gay, has said he was walking from a Subway sandwich shop to his apartment in the 300 block of East North Water Street about 2 a.m. Jan. 29 when two men walked up, yelled racial and homophobic slurs, hit him and wrapped a noose around his neck. Smollett said they also poured a bleachlike substance on him and yelled, "This is MAGA country," in reference to Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
Smollett's allegations made worldwide headlines, but questions arose about his story.
Police initially treated the incident as a hate crime, but their focus turned to Smollett after the two brothers who were alleged to have been his attackers told police that Smollett had paid them $3,500 to stage the attack, with a promise of an additional $500 later.
