President Donald Trump has waded in to the Jussie Smollett case.
All charges against the Empire actor were dropped after he was accused of falsifying a police report and orchestrating the racially motivated attack himself.
Jussie said in a statement outside court this week that he wanted to focus on his career, but he might not get his wish if the president has anything to with it.
Trump tweeted this thoughts on the latest development in the actor’s case, saying: ‘FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. It is an embarrassment to our Nation!’
He is not the only public figure to have expressed outrage, with the mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel calling the decision to drop the charges a ‘whitewash of justice’.
Emanuel said: ‘My job as a police officer is to investigate an incident, gather evidence, gather the facts and present them to the State’s Attorney. That’s what we did. I stand behind the detective’s investigation.’
The Mayor added that dropping the charges is to the detriment of ‘gay men and women who will come forward and one day will say they were a victim of a hate crime and now will be doubted; people of faith, Muslim or any other faith, who will be a victim of hate crime; people of all walks of life, background, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, now this casts a shadow of whether they’re telling the truth.’
Jussie said in his own statement: ‘I want you to know that not for a moment was it in vain I have been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one, I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I have been accused of. This has been an incredibly difficult time.’
The actor, who plays Jamal on Empire, has reportedly been given a pay rise.
An insider close to Jussie told Metro.co.uk: ‘He’ll be back on the show and is getting a raise. ‘Fox believes his story and recognises what the scandal is going to do for ratings.’
However, following the latest development a public relations expert has argued that Jussie’s career is ‘over’ and believes his future lies on a ‘third rate reality show’.
Ronn Torrisian of 5W Public Relations told us: ‘What I would say to a client who was thinking of hiring him for something is, “What do you need this clown show for? What do you need this sideshow for?”.
‘If a client of mine wanted to hire him – this is not some mega star that’s gonna bring in more of an audience, it’s just a sideshow.’
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