Might 24, 2025
Jussie Smollett has lastly reached a settlement with the town of Chicago, and appears “onward” to placing the alleged hate crime hoax behind him.
Jussie Smollett has agreed to pay $50,000 to a Chicago-based charity to settle a lawsuit the town filed over his alleged hate crime hoax.
The settlement, reached on Might 22, permits Smollett to resolve the lawsuit by donating $50,000 to Constructing Brighter Futures Heart for the Arts, a corporation that helps Chicago’s underprivileged youth, BBC experiences. The donation is considerably decrease than the $130,000 the town of Chicago initially sought to recoup its investigation prices.
“Town believes this settlement gives a good, constructive, and conclusive decision, permitting all of the events to shut this six-year-old chapter and transfer ahead,” a spokesperson for the regulation division stated in a press release.
The settlement marks the top of a six-year authorized battle after Smollett claimed he was the sufferer of a racist and homophobic assault in 2019. In a case marked by dramatic twists, Smollett was in the end charged with submitting a false police report concerning the alleged hate crime, an accusation he has constantly denied.
Though the fees had been ultimately dropped, the Empire actor has constantly professed his innocence and denied that the assault was pretend. Following the settlement, Smollett shared a prolonged assertion on social media reaffirming his stance and voicing his help for the $50,000 donation to the Chicago-based charity.
“Over six years in the past, after it was reported I had been jumped, metropolis Officers in Chicago got down to persuade the general public that I willfully set an assault in opposition to myself. This false narrative has left a stain on my character that won’t quickly disappear,” Smollett stated. “These officers wished my cash and wished my confession for one thing I didn’t do. At the moment, it needs to be clear. They’ve acquired neither.”
The actor continued. “After repeatedly refusing to pay the town, I used to be offered with a possibility to make a charitable donation in alternate for the case being dismissed. Regardless of what occurred there politically, Chicago was my dwelling for over 5 years and the folks grew to become my household. Subsequently, making a donation to profit Chicago communities which might be too typically uncared for by these in energy will at all times be one thing I help.”
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