Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday the city will send Jussie Smollett a bill for what it cost to investigate his "hoax about a hate crime" in the wake of prosecutors dropping 16 charges against the "Empire" actor Tuesday.

Emanuel — who called the dropped charges a "whitewash of justice" and "not on the level" in a scathing news conference — told WGN-AM "police right now are assembling the costs of what was put into this, and then the corporation council's gonna take action based on those costs directly to Jussie Smollett."

The mayor added that the corporation council will "send a letter to Jussie Smollett and his attorneys trying to recoup those costs for the city," Emanuel said. "It is a small way of both acknowledging, one, guilt, and two, that we spent these resources" that taxpayers provided.

Emanuel has said numerous times that the $10,000 bond Smollett forfeited isn't in the same ballpark as what Chicago spent on the investigation.

"He is charged with 16 counts for creating a hoax about a hate crime. He walks out, says 'I'm innocent.' They say, 'No, he's guilty, and the police work is good,'" Emanuel added. "Now, you can't be both on the same case. So, to me, was he or was he not guilty of a hoax ... or was there a hate crime committed? Yes or no, it's ... very straightforward."

Instead, the mayor added, when the charges were dropped, "Poof! White smoke. We know more about how the Pope is picked than we know what happened here."

What else?

When ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Smollett's attorney, Tina Glandian, if she was "going to sue," she replied that "we're weighing our options now," the Washington Examiner reported, adding that Glandian wasn't specific on what parties might be targeted in a lawsuit.

Smollett maintained his innocence after charges against him were dropped.

"I've been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one," Smollet said. "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, honestly one of the worst of my entire life. But I am a man of faith, and I am a man that has knowledge of my history, and I would not bring my family, our lives, or the movement through a fire like this. I just wouldn't."

(H/T: Louder With Crowder)

