Mayor Lightfoot Says Jussie Smollett Needs To Be Held Accountable

CHICAGO (CBS) — Jussie Smollett is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday that Smollett should be held accountable.

“He needs to face the charges. He committed a crime, and he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and we are going to continue to aggressively make him accountable for the wasted police resources that went into investigating what turned out to be a total hoax,” Mayor Lightfoot said.

Smollett is accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack in January of last year. This is the second time he has been charged in the case.

Earlier this month, a special grand jury indicted Smollett on six counts of disorderly conduct, accusing him of filing false police reports.

Cook County prosecutors last year dropped 16 disorderly conduct charges against Smollett, just over a month after Chicago police had accused him of orchestrating a hoax because he was upset with his salary on the TV show “Empire.”