Jussie Smollett indicted on 16 counts over alleged false police report

A grand jury in Chicago has returned a 16-count felony indictment against television actor Jussie Smollett, accusing him of filing a false police report when he claimed he was the victim of a hate-crime assault by supporters of Donald Trump, local media reported on Friday, citing court records.

The Empire actor was previously charged in a criminal complaint with felony disorderly conduct, involving lying to police in relation to a supposed racist and homophobic attack in downtown Chicago on 29 January.

“Jussie Smollett knew that at the time … there was no reasonable ground for believing that such offenses had been committed,” according to the indictment, CBS Chicago said in a report on Friday afternoon.

The actor, who is openly gay and best known for his role as the gay character Jamal Lyon on the Fox TV show, prompted widespread shock and concern when it emerged he had reported being attacked while walking home in the early hours. He told police two masked men – one of them wearing a red Make America Great Again hat – shouted racist and homophobic slurs as they beat him, put a noose around his neck, and doused him with a chemical.

Police said, in reality, Smollett had paid those two men, Ola and Abel Osundairo, $3,500 to stage the attack.

Whispers about Smollett’s potential role in the alleged attack started with reports that he had not fully cooperated with police, and word that detectives in a city full of surveillance cameras could not find video of the attack.

Police looked through hours of video surveillance from the area but found no footage of any attack.

The actor told Good Morning America he had been unable to give detectives a good description of his assailants as their faces were obscured. “You have to understand it’s Chicago in winter – people can wear ski masks and nobody’s going to question that,” he said.

Police said after Smollett was arrested last month that they believed he staged the attack because he was “dissatisfied with his salary” on Empire and was trying to draw attention to his plight.

(THE GUARDIAN)