The Jussie Smollett case is one of the more strange events that's occurred in 2019 so far. The singer gained public sympathy after alleging he was a victim of a hate crime only to be accused of staging the attack himself. Although he's maintained his innocence, the court of public opinion isn't buying it. However, he's adamant that he's proven innocent and he plans on being active in his defense throughout the trial.
Jussie Smollett confidently walked into the Cooks County Courthouse for a hearing on his case but he wasn't actually required to be there. The hearing was actually for his lawyer, Mark Geragos, to finalize his paperwork in order to represent Jussie in the state of Illinois. TMZ's sources claim that the actor is working towards being an active participant in his defense rather than an observer. The "Empire" actor has been keeping a low profile ever since the alleged attack went down earlier this year but he's reportedly done with hiding from the public.
Jussie Smollett's case reached a new level on Friday after a grand jury revealed that he's been indicted on 16 felony counts for filing a false police report -- one count for each alleged false statement he provided to police during two interviews. His lawyer responded by claiming that the indictment "is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines in order to distract from the internal investigation launched to investigate the outrageous leaking of false information by the Chicago Police Department."
