Smollett was charged with 16 felony counts for allegedly lying to police about being the victim of a homophobic and racist attack in Chicago. Those charges were sensationally dropped yesterday.
After news broke @EmpireWriters tweeted out a screenshot of CNN coverage with the caption: “See y’all Wednesday” and a winking emoji.
Fox who produce Empire also put out a statement which read: “Jussie Smollett has always maintained his innocence and we are gratified that all charges against him have been dismissed.”
But speaking on Good Morning America on Wednesday, the Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel blasted Smollett for “abusing the city of Chicago.”
“You have the state’s attorney’s office saying he’s not exonerated, he actually did commit this hoax. He’s saying he’s innocent and his words aren’t true.”
The Mayor says he wants the court records unsealed so that all the evidence gathered by Chicago Police could be seen publicly.
“They Did Not Exonerate Him”
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: @ChicagosMayor on the Jussie Smollett bombshell, “they better get their stories straight.” https://t.co/BHjpbroTWb pic.twitter.com/RSiXF0TZ3H
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 27, 2019
Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney, told NBC News that prosecutors “did not exonerate Mr Smollett”, but offered an agreement available “to any defendant with similar circumstances”.
“The charges were dropped in return for Mr Smollett’s agreement to do community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the City of Chicago. Without the completion of these terms, the charges would not have been dropped.”
