Jussie Smollett “Not Innocent” Of Hoax Hate Crime Attack, Prosecutor Insists As Conviction Overturned – Update
(Updated with Special Prosecutor statement) Jussie Smollett’s 2021 conviction over his alleged fake assault on the streets of Chicago is now behind the Empire actor. However, the former U.S. Attorney appointed to the case insists this decision doesn’t mean Smollett is innocent of falsely reporting a MAGA connected hate crime in early 2019.
In a somewhat surprising ruling, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the legal consequences Smollett suffered due to the high profile incident.In the court’s opinion, the Illinois Supreme Court found that special prosecutor’s Dan Webb’s decision to retry Smollett violated his rights.
More from Deadline
“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” the court’s opinion reads, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”
A Chicago jury found Smollett guilty in December 2021 on five felony charges, including lying to the police about the alleged hate crime attack on the former Empire actor in 2019.
Smollett claimed he was the victim of an assault in the early hours of January 29, 2019 by two men chanting “MAGA Country” (who later turned out to be personal trainers hired by the actor), spouting racial and homophobic slurs and tossing a noose around his neck. In the initial outpoar of support for Smollett in the hours and days after the supposed attack, even then president Donald Trump had some kind words for the actor.
Law enforcement officials later determined Smollett had orchestrated the attack himself and charged him with a crime.
Today, special prosecutor Webb blasted the court ruling, diplomatically.
“We are disappointed in the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Jussie Smollett’s convictions and sentence, including the award of over $120,000 in restitution to the City of Chicago for its overtime expenses in investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime,” Webb said. “We respectfully disagree with the Court’s factual and legal reasoning which upends long-standing Illinois precedent.”
“Make no mistake—today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence,” the ex-Iran Contra scandal lawyer went on to say. “The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct.”
“Today’s ruling does not change how deeply proud I am of the work my Special Prosecutor’s office accomplished; nor does it undermine the jury’s verdict, and most importantly, it does not clear Jussie Smollett’s name—he is not innocent.”
Read the full statement below from the special prosecutor on Jussie Smollett’s conviction being overturned.
Prosecutors had agreed to drop the charges against the actor as part of an agreement that he would forfeit his $10,000 bond and perform community service. The case was later revived by a special prosecutor and Smollett was convicted of felony disorderly conduct for falsely reporting to the police that he had been the victim of a hate crime attack.
He was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months probation and ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution to the city of Chicago for the overtime police spent on his initial case and a further $25,000 fine. In December 2023, his bid for an appeal was denied.
At the time his legal troubles began, Smollett had been portraying middle son Jamal Lyon for five seasons on the Lee Daniels- and Danny Strong-created primetime soap Empire. As his legal woes grew, Smollett was dropped from the Fox show’s sixth and final season.
Here is Special Prosecutor Dan Webb’s full statement on Jussie Smollett’s conviction being overturned:
We are disappointed in the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Jussie Smollett’s convictions and sentence, including the award of over $120,000 in restitution to the City of Chicago for its overtime expenses in investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime. We respectfully disagree with the Court’s factual and legal reasoning which upends long-standing Illinois precedent. Indeed, the Special Prosecutor’s brief to the Illinois Supreme Court was replete with Illinois case law that would not preclude a second, new prosecution following a dismissal without prejudice via nolle prosequi. Even the Illinois Supreme Court agreed in its opinion that its holding today was not explicit in earlier Illinois decisions.”
“Make no mistake—today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.
My office spent nearly two years developing evidence and working closely with the Chicago Police Department to prepare that case for trial. It is very important I point out that today’s decision is also not the result of any error or conduct by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the trial court, or the Chicago Police Department. In fact, the events that led to the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse Mr. Smollett’s conviction occurred 5 months before I was appointed as Special Prosecutor.
Rather, today’s decision is only possible because of the unprecedented resolution of Mr. Smollett’s initial case by the Cook County State’s Attorneys’ Office (CCSAO) in March 2019, which the Illinois Supreme Court determined barred Mr. Smollett from any further prosecution. The Illinois Supreme Court reached this decision notwithstanding the fact that the CCSAO dismissed the initial Smollett case via a nolle prosequi, which does not bar re-prosecution under Illinois law, and Mr. Smollett’s own lawyers told the public immediately following the dismissal of his initial case in March 2019 that there was “no deal” with the CCSAO.
As previously set forth in my 63-page, very detailed Special Prosecutor’s Public Summary Report, my office developed evidence of substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures by the CCSAO in prosecuting and resolving the initial 2019 Smollett case, and also found that State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx and other CCSAO prosecutors made multiple false and/or misleading statements to the public. Those significant failures and false and/or misleading statements by State’s Attorney Foxx’s office led Cook County Judge Michael B. Toomin to appoint me as Special Prosecutor in order to restore the public’s faith in Illinois’ criminal justice system. In fact, there was a public clamor to have a well-respected trial lawyer and law firm agree to become a special prosecutor in order to help restore the public’s confidence in the Cook County judicial system. My law firm, Winston & Strawn LLP, accepted the appointment pro bono with no compensation to the firm in order to give back to the City of Chicago.
Our Winston & Strawn lawyers fulfilled this mandate by devoting over 5 years and more than 15,000 hours in examining the original Smollett investigation and bringing new charges, which yielded a unanimous jury conviction of Mr. Smollett in 2021 on five felony counts of wrongful misconduct. Nothing about today’s decision upsets the work undertaken by the Special Prosecutor’s office, or the overwhelming evidence underlying the jury’s verdict that Mr. Smollett faked a hate crime and reported it as a real hate crime to the Chicago Police Department.
Despite today’s ruling, the City of Chicago remains able to pursue its pending civil lawsuit against Mr. Smollett in order to recoup the over $120,000 in overtime expenses the Chicago Police Department incurred for investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime.
I want to provide a special thanks to Deputy Special Prosecutors Sean G. Wieber, Samuel Mendenhall, and the entire team at Winston & Strawn who assisted in this matter, for all of their dedication and efforts over the years. Today’s ruling does not change how deeply proud I am of the work my Special Prosecutor’s office accomplished; nor does it undermine the jury’s verdict, and most importantly, it does not clear Jussie Smollett’s name—he is not innocent.
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.