Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2020

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a suit by former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett alleging he was the victim of a malicious prosecution over his allegedly staged hate crime attack in January 2019.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall ruled that Smollett’s claim against the city of Chicago and several police officers cannot go forward now that he’s been re-indicted by a special Cook County grand jury on charges stemming from the same incident.

In her 15-page opinion, Kendall wrote that if the new criminal case — brought by special prosecutor Dan Webb in February — were to end in Smollett’s favor, he would be free to refile his suit.

But the judge indicated that such a claim would likely fail since police had plenty of evidence showing Smollett had staged the attack, including sworn statements from the phony attackers, brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo.

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