Jussie Smollett’s Legal Team Says He’s Not Responsible For $130K Investigation Into His Attack Claims

Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett’s Legal Team Says He Should NOT Have To Pay $130K For Investigation

Jussie Smollett has a ride or die legal team. Months after he was accused of faking a hate crime against himself, the city of Chicago wants him to pay for the cost of the investigation into his claims. But his lawyers are insisting that that’s not the former Empire actor’s responsibility.

While the city sued Smollett for the $130,000 investigation, his lawyers filed a motion this week that says he shouldn’t be held liable. For starters, it says Smollett didn’t fake the attack and added that the police department shouldn’t have spent 1,836 hours in overtime along with other allegedly endless non-overtime hours to investigate Smollett’s report.

Jussie Smollett

The motion, filed by William J. Quinlan,  says,

“Filing of a police report, in and of itself, does not necessitate a sprawling investigation nor does it, as a practical matter, usually result in an investigation as extensive as the one the CPD chose to undertake in this case.”

“Does a police report cause an investigation? My point is (that) filing a police report does not have a direct link or doesn’t have a requirement or causal link to an investigation.”

He said said the Chicago’s lawyers have yet to

“identify any allegations that would plausibly show that Mr. Smollett, as opposed to officials at the CPD or the State’s Attorney’s office, caused the City to incur the alleged costs.”

Jussie Smollet

He went on to reference that the charges Smollett once faced, for accusations that he filed a false police report, were dropped.

“The city’s claims and purported damages are a vindictive effort to prosecute charges that the State’s Attorney pursued and then chose to drop.”

Meanwhile, a Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi argued,

“Whether it’s Chicago or any other U.S. city, when he reported a vicious hate crime, it was going to be investigated at the highest level of vigor and detail.”

Jussie Smollett

As for the investigation, police scoured the area of the alleged attack for witnesses, conducted several interviews, performed a forensic analysis on the rope that was allegedly tied around Smollett’s neck as well as the alleged bleach substance that was thrown on him. The police also collected several hours of surveillance video from buildings, cabs and in the area.

A federal judge will make a decision on whether to dismiss the lawsuit on October 22.

Do you think Jussie should pay for the investigation? Tell us in the comments.