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An Illinois attorney said that he thought Jussie Smollett was guilty of organizing a racist and homophobic attack on himself despite his decision to drop the lawsuits against him. actor of "Empire" Tuesday.
"I do not think he's innocent," CBS News's Tuesday afternoon attorney told Cook's First Assistant Warden, Joseph Magats, after Smollett's legal team had announced that the Magats office had rejected the charges.
When asked if he thought Smollett was guilty, Magats replied "yes." He confirmed that dropping the charges, including 16 counts of indictment for organizing the January attack and lying to officials, did not "vindicate" or "exonerate" Smollett.
"Our priority is violent crime and the drivers of violence. Jussie Smollett is not one of those, "Magats told CBS News when asked why his office would abandon the case when he felt the actor was guilty.
The Cook County Attorney's Office suddenly dropped all charges against Smollett on Tuesday, inflaming social media and angering Chicago officials.
Although Magats and the Chicago Police Department convict Smollett, the actor repeatedly asserted that he had been a victim of a brutal hate crime and denied his involvement.
"All the criminal charges against Jussie Smollett have been dropped and his case has been erased from the filing of this tragic complaint against him," Smollett's lawyers said in a statement Tuesday, saying their client was "a victim".
Smollett made two days of community service this week and was forced to waive a $ 10,000 bond – a fraction of the $ 150,000 it would have cost the city to sue in this case.
When asked on Tuesday that he felt this sanction was appropriate, Magats told CBS News that he "thought so," adding that community service and a monetary penalty were common in non-union cases. violent.
In January, Smollett, who is gay and black, said two men had viciously attacked Chicago, alleging that they had shouted racist and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him and passed a noose around his neck. But investigators later stated that he had hired the two men to organize the attack in order to obtain a salary increase.
Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson said last month that there was "much more evidence" to prove that Smollett had staged the attack and lied about it than what had been made public. He stood at the evaluation of the case by his department at a press conference on Tuesday.
"Do I think justice has been done? No, said Johnson. "What do I think justice is? I think we still have to apologize to this city. "
He added, "In the end, it's Mr. Smollett who made this hoax, period. If he wants to erase his name, the best way to do it is to do it by a court so that everyone can see the evidence.
This is a story in development. Come back for updates.
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