The prosecution of Jussie Smollett — a small-time felony case that has grown more bizarre with each passing week — may have taken its strangest twist yet on Friday. In a blistering ruling, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin ordered a special prosecutor appointed to re-investigate the circumstances of the onetime “Empire” actor’s alleged hoax attack on a frigid January night in downtown Chicago, reports the Chicago Tribune. Toomin blasted State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the prosecution, saying her botched decision to appoint her top deputy to prosecute Smollett after recusing herself invalidated the case from start to finish.
The rare move to name a special prosecutor marks the first step in what promises to be a full-blown probe of how Foxx’s office made the controversial decision to drop the disorderly conduct charges against Smollett a few weeks after he was indicted. The investigation will keep the Smollett case in the national headlines for months and could cast a cloud over Foxx’s bid for re-election next year. It also raised the specter that Smollett could be charged all over again for what Chicago police determined to be a staged attack he orchestrated on himself because of dissatisfaction over his pay on the Fox series. The episode has been costly for the actor, who won’t return to his role for the final season of “Empire.” He faces a lawsuit from the city of Chicago seeking to recoup the cost of police overtime for investigating the incident. His attorneys have been sued for defamation by two brothers who claim Smollett paid them $3,500 to help him stage the attack.