Federal officials are investigating the circumstances around the Jussie Smollett case after criminal charges against the Empire star were suddenly dismissed Tuesday by Illinois prosecutors.

Thursday afternoon, President Trump told reporters that he had directed federal officials to review the case.



"I think the case in Chicago is an absolute embarrassment to our country. I have asked that they look at it," Trump said. "Somebody has to, at least, take a very good, hard look at it."



Earlier Thursday morning, Trump had tweeted that the FBI and Department of Justice would review the case, which he called “an embarrassment to our Nation!”

It was not immediately clear at the time if Trump had been briefed on the investigation himself or if he was merely responding to Fox News, which had reported on the probe a few minutes before the tweet. (The president frequently tweets in response to Fox News programming.) The White House didn’t respond on the record to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.



The Department of Justice and Chicago FBI declined to comment to BuzzFeed News, but unnamed federal law enforcement officials confirmed their investigation to ABC Chicago and NBC.

