Jussie Smollett, the actor who claimed to be a victim of a 2019 hate crime but was later charged with having staged the attack, has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against him by the city of Chicago with a donation to charity.
The actor said on a post on Instagram that he made a $50,000 donation to the Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, a Chicago-based non-profit that works with art and city youth. He will additionally make a $10,000 donation to the Chicago Torture Justice Center, which helps victims of abuse by Chicago police.
“Every dollar we receive goes towards repairing decades of racialized state violence by providing no-cost therapy, a community space, an organizing home, and other services to survivors of police torture and violence,” the Chicago Torture Justice Center said in an Instagram post confirming Smollett’s donation. “This generous donation from Mr Smollett is so meaningful and deeply impactful.”
This settlement brings to an end a six-year-long legal battle between Chicago and Smollett, in which the city sought to recuperate funds used to investigate Smollett’s claims.
Smollett, a Black and gay actor well-known for his performance in the television show Empire, said in 2019 that two masked men in Chicago jumped him, poured bleach on him, placed a rope around his neck, and called him homophobic and racist slurs. But two extras from his show told police the actor had paid them to stage the attack.
Smollett was charged with disorderly conduct for falsely saying he was the victim of a hate crime. All charges were dropped after his legal team cut a deal with prosecutors – Smollett paid the city $10,000 and agreed to perform community service.
The city of Chicago, in turn, sued Smollett for the cost of the investigation, saying it totaled $130,000. Smollett counter-sued the city, denying he staged the attack.
Smollett was indicted in 2020 after the case was revived by a special prosecutor and was convicted of falsely reporting an attack. But in November, the supreme court of Illinois overturned the conviction , ruling the actor had been unjustly prosecuted after prosecutors had agreed to drop the charges in 2019 in exchange for Smollett agreeing to forfeit a $10,000 bond and perform 15 hours of community service.
Smollett continues to deny that he staged the attack.
“Over six years ago, after it was reported I had been jumped, City Officials in Chicago set out to convince the public that I willfully set [up] an assault against myself,” Smollett wrote on Instagram on Friday. “This false narrative has left a stain on my character that will not soon disappear.”
Smollett also claimed that he had been “exonerated by the Illinois Supreme Court”, but the judges wrote that they decided to overturn the case based on the procedural issue of a due process violation, and made no finding on the underlying facts in the case.
