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Hours after Trump announced the review in a Twitter message
calling the case a national embarrassment, the city sent the
actor a letter demanding he reimburse police for $130,000 in
overtime costs for the investigation.
Smollett, who is black and gay, said two men attacked him on the
street at night in January, yelling homophobic and racist slurs,
pouring a chemical on him and putting a noose around his neck
while shouting support for Trump.
Investigators later charged Smollett with paying $3,500 to the
men to stage the attack to garner public sympathy. Prosecutors
dropped the charges on Tuesday, saying they stood by the
accusation but that an agreement by Smollett to forfeit his
$10,000 bond was a just outcome.
Smollett, 36, insists he is innocent and was the victim of a
real attack.
Tina Glandian, one of his defense lawyers, told NBC News on
Thursday that she was unconcerned by the review, saying, "To my
knowledge, nothing improper was done."
The county prosecutors' decision stunned the city's police
chief, prompted the police union to demand a federal
investigation, and enraged Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a
Democrat, who called it a "whitewash" that made a fool of the
city.
DEMAND FOR PAYMENT
Trump, a Republican, echoed those remarks on Thursday.
"FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in
Chicago," Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice. "It is an
embarrassment to our Nation!"
On Thursday, the mayor said he would seek to have Smollett
reimburse Chicago for investigation costs, and rejected Trump's
federal review, telling the president to "sit this one out."
Chicago Corporation Counsel Edward Siskel, who heads the
municipal Department of Law, sent Smollett a letter on Thursday
demanding payment within seven days of more than $130,000 to
cover police overtime expenses.
"If the amount is not timely paid, the Department of Law may
prosecute you for making a false statement to the city" under
city ordinances, Siskel warned Smollett in the letter.
Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said enforcement of the
city's false statement code amounts to a civil action, not a
criminal case, carrying a maximum fine of $1,000 plus up to
three times the amount of damages to the city.
The city could also seek to recover court costs, collection
costs and attorneys fees, but Smollett would face no jail time,
McCaffrey said.
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
The FBI has already had some involvement in the case, with
agents investigating a threatening letter Smollett said he
received prior to the attack, according to the Chicago Police
Department.
The initial reports of two Trump supporters attacking a gay,
black celebrity drew widespread sympathy for Smollett,
particularly from Democrats. That faded quickly after the
actor's arrest, and the case was seized on by some as an example
of what Trump likes to deride as "fake news."
Smollett is best known for playing a gay musician on the Fox
drama "Empire." His lawyers said he hopes to move on with his
career, but it remains unclear whether he will return to
"Empire" after being written out of the last two episodes of the
most recent season.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Steve Groman in Los
Angeles; editing by Bill Tarrant and Richard Chang)
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