Just when you thought it was safe to go back out on the internet without having to think about the Jussie Smollett legal-nonsense clusterfuck ever again: A Chicago-area judge has just decided that, nope, this is what we’re doing with our brains today.
Per Reuters, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin has just appointed a special prosecutor to investigate why charges (specifically, a felony count of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report) were dropped against the former Empire star, who claimed back in January that two men spouting Trump slogans attacked him in Chicago—assertions that the Chicago PD have vigorously investigated and questioned, leading to legal charges against him. Illinois State Attorney Kim Foxx eventually worked out a deal with Smollett’s legal team, dropping charges in exchange for community service, forfeited bail money, and a solemn promise that none of us would ever have to think about this embarrassing mass of conjectures and bad judgment ever again.
But sadly, it was not to be: The FBI already announced back in March that it would be looking into the rationale behind Foxx’s decision—“I have a headache, and it only gets worse every day I have to think about this shit” not being sufficient, presumably—and now the state is getting involved too. The special prosecutor will apparently be going over every aspect of the investigation, with a possibility that Smollett could find himself facing new charges.
A number of people in authority were reportedly unhappy with the decision to try to move on from the Smollett case, including Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and the wide, angry man in the White House. Smollett has kept very quiet since the charges against him were dropped, although Fox recently confirmed that he wouldn’t be returning to Empire at any point in the near-future.