CHICAGO
(AP) — Actor Jussie Smollett was indicted Tuesday for a second time on
charges of lying to police about a racist and anti-gay attack he
allegedly staged on himself in downtown Chicago, renewing a divisive
criminal case that drew worldwide attention last year.

The
indictment came from a special prosecutor who was appointed after Cook
County prosecutors dropped the same charges last March.

The new
charges were sure to reignite many of the tensions that surrounded
Smollett a year ago. When his claims first emerged, he drew a
groundswell of support from fans and celebrities and gave an emotional
television interview about the attack.

The case came to reflect
the polarized state of political discourse in America. Many Democrats
initially called it a shocking instance of Trump-era racism and hate,
while Republicans depicted it as yet another example of liberals rushing
to judgment and disparaging the president’s supporters as bigots.

Special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement
that Smollett faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct, charges
that stem from four separate false reports that he gave to police in
which he contended he was a victim of a hate crime “knowing that he was
not the victim of a crime.”

The statement immediately raised
questions about county prosecutors’ decision to drop the charges and
made it clear that those prosecutors had not adequately explained to
special prosecutors why they did so. But Webb stressed that he had
reached no conclusions about whether anyone involved in the case had
engaged in any wrongdoing.

Smollett, who is black and gay, was
originally charged with disorderly conduct in February 2019 for
allegedly staging the attack and lying about it to investigators. The
allegations were dropped the following month with little explanation,
angering police officials and then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Tina Glandian, Smollett’s attorney, questioned Webb’s decision to file new charges.

The
indictment “raises serious questions about the integrity of the
investigation that led to the renewed charges” Glandian said, citing the
use of the same detectives who were part of the original investigation
into the attack to conduct the latest probe, despite Smollett’s pending
civil claims against the city and police officers for malicious
prosecution.

He is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on Feb. 24.

Smollett
told police he was walking home early on Jan. 29, 2019, when two masked
men approached him, made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and
looped a noose around his neck before fleeing. He said his assailants,
at least one of whom he described as white, told him he was in “MAGA
country” — a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan,
“Make America Great Again.”

Several weeks later, authorities
alleged that Smollett had paid two black friends $3,500 to help him
stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary as an actor on
“Empire,” a Fox series about that follows a black family as they
navigate the ups and downs of the recording industry. Smollett was
accused of using the scheme to drum up publicity for his career.

A
judge in August appointed Webb, a former U.S. attorney, to look into
why the original charges were dropped. Webb also was investigating
whether phone calls that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had with a
Smollett relative and a former aide of former first lady Michelle Obama
unduly influenced the decision to drop charges. Foxx recused herself
from the case but continued to weigh in.

At the time, Judge
Michael Toomin, who assigned the case to Webb, raised the possibility
that Smollett could be charged again. According to the judge and
attorneys, double jeopardy does not apply because Smollett was never
prosecuted.

In his news release, Webb said he concluded that
prosecuting Smollett was “in the interest of justice” for a number of
reasons, including the extensive details of Smollett’s false account as
well as the resources that the police department threw at the
investigation.

When the first indictment against Smollett was
returned, Webb wrote, the state’s attorney’s office had concluded that
the evidence in the case was “strong.” But the office failed to offer
any new evidence to explain why authorities dropped the charges just a
few weeks later, Webb said.

Further, Webb took issue with an
assertion in a news release issued when the charges were dropped that
Smollett had not received special treatment and that the case was
resolved “under the same criteria that would be available for any
defendant with similar circumstances.” Webb asked for but never received
any examples of other such cases, he wrote.

The city has sued
Smollett, seeking reimbursement of more than $130,000 for overtime paid
to officers who were involved in investigating Smollett’s report.
Smollett’s attorneys have said the city should not be allowed to recover
costs from Smollett because it accepted $10,000 from the actor “as
payment in full in connection with the dismissal of the charges against
him.”

It was not immediately clear what sentence Smollett faces if
convicted. When he was originally charged with disorderly conduct, it
was reported that he could be placed on probation or sent to prison for
one to three years per count.

Smollett’s case has become an issue
in Foxx’s bid for a second term. Those looking to unseat the first black
woman to hold the county’s highest law enforcement position, have
blasted her handling of the matter as haphazard and indecisive. They say
it indicates she has bad judgment and favors the rich and powerful in
deciding who will be prosecuted.

Foxx’s campaign committee issued a
biting statement Tuesday referring to former FBI Director James Comey’s
decision to briefly reopen an investigation into Democratic candidate
Hillary Clinton’s email shortly before the presidential election in 2016
that Donald Trump would win.

“What’s questionable here is the
James Comey-like timing of that charging decision”…which can only be
interpreted as the further politicization of the justice system,
something voters in the era of Donald Trump should consider offensive,”
the statement from Friends for Foxx said.

Smollett’s attorney also raised political implications.

The
attempt to re-prosecute Smollett “on the eve of the Cook County State’s
Attorney election is clearly all about politics not justice,” she said.

Smollett,
37, has not had any notable film or television roles announced since
his departure from the TV series was made public in April 2019.
Producers have the option to bring him back during the sixth and final
season but have said they have no plans to do so.

“Empire” has 10 episodes left. It is scheduled to return March 3.