Jussie Smollett Charged With 16 Felony Counts Over False Police Report

Jussie Smollett has been slammed by a Cook County grand jury — giving him 16-count felony indictment against him.

The 16-count felony indictment is for filing a false police report when alleging he was viciously attacked in Chicago in a “racist,” and “homophobic,” attack which he linked to Donald Trump supporters.

The grand jury gave 2 sets of charges including one for Jussie’s initial report to Chicago Police Darptment and the other charges are for his second interview he gave with the police.

Ola and Abel Osundario apparently told grand jurors that Jussie hired them to stage the alleged “attack.” — both of the brothers were seen on CCTV purchasing ski masks, bandanas, red harts, gloves and sunglasses moments before the incident took place.

Jussie’s attorney, Mark Geragos, has reponded to the indictment, telling TMZ.com, “The fact of an indictment was not unexpected. We knew that there is no way they would expose their evidence to a public airing and subject their witnesses to cross-examination. What is unexpected, however, is the prosecutorial overkill in charging 16 separate counts against Jussie.”

Mark continues, “This redundant and vindictive 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 and the shameless and illegal invasion of Jussie’s privacy in tampering with his medical records. Jussie adamantly maintains his innocence even if law enforcement has robbed him of that presumption.”

According to our sources, Jussie’s stardom shot up once he alleged the attack with job offers “flooding” in, but since the allegations against him filing a false police report became apparent, his job offers are “dead in the water,”

We’re told he wants to clear his name and prove that the alleged attack was “real,” but understands that going forward, his job offers “won’t be great”.