Supreme Court dismisses Jussie Smollett convictions, allows Trump Tower defamation suit to continue – capitolnewsillinois.com
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SPRINGFIELD – Criminal convictions of actor Jussie Smollett will be dismissed, and a defamation lawsuit against the Chicago Sun-Times will be allowed to continue, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in a slate of opinions Thursday.
The high court ruled disorderly conduct charges against Smollett should be dismissed because if they were allowed to stand, he would have been charged for the same crime twice, in violation of his due process rights.
Smollett’s case dates to 2019, when he made what turned out to be a false police report alleging that he’d been violently attacked by two men in downtown Chicago. Smollett, an actor at the time in the Fox TV drama “Empire,” claimed the men punched him and yelled homophobic slurs, put a noose around his neck and told Smollett, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to then-President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
