Megan Crepeau and Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune, February 11, 2020

Actor Jussie Smollett is facing new criminal charges nearly a year after Cook County prosecutors dropped disorderly conduct counts against him for allegedly orchestrating a racist, homophobic attack on himself early last year.

Smollett was indicted by a special Cook County grand jury on six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly making four separate false reports regarding what police said was a faked attack. Special Prosecutor Dan Webb announced the charges in a press release Tuesday, saying that “further prosecution of Jussie Smollett is ‘in the interest of justice’.”

The new charges are just the latest twist in the Smollett saga, which ignited a firestorm of controversy for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx when the original case against the actor was set aside.

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In announcing his decision to charge Smollett, Webb pointed to several factors including “the extensive nature of Mr. Smollett’s false police reports, and the resources expended by the Chicago Police Department to investigate these false reports.”

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