CHICAGO (CelebrityAccess) — While Cook County prosecutors have the dropped state charges brought against Empire actor Jussie Smollett, he may not be out of the woods just yet.
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to call for the FBI and Justice Department to ‘review’ the case.
In his tweet, the President described the decision to drop the charges as “outrageous” and an “embarrassment to our Nation.”
However, it is unclear exactly how a federal review of the prosecutor’s decision to drop charges would take shape, or under what jurisdiction such a review would operate.
Federal investigators are already looking into a different aspect of the case — a threatening letter that Smollett was alleged to have sent to himself at the Empire set through the U.S. mail, and which, if true, may constitute mail fraud.
Smollett gained notoriety earlier this year after police alleged that he staged a fake hate crime attack on himself in what investigators claimed was an attempt to gain public sympathy and increase his salary.
But in a surprise move on Tuesday, state prosecutors announced they were dropping charges against Smollett in exchange for the forfeiture of his $100,000 bond and an agreement to do community service.
Since then, assistant state’s attorney Joe Magats, who made the decision to drop the charges, has defended the move.
“We didn’t exonerate him,” Magats told the New York Times. “The charges against Smollett were dropped in return for his agreement to do community service, he said, and for forfeiting his bond to the city of Chicago.”
“Here’s the thing — we work to prioritize violent crime and the drivers of violent crime. Public safety is our number one priority. I don’t see Jussie Smollett as a threat to public safety,” Magats added.
Smollett was also announced as a nominee this week for the NAACP Image Awards, picking up a nod for Best Supporting Actor for a Television Series for his work on Fox’s ‘Empire.’
