Jussie Smollett Must Still Defend City of Chicago Lawsuit for Investigative Costs

Jussie Smollett now has a fight on his hands on 2 fronts, because the City of Chicago is not backing down from its lawsuit to recover the cost of investigating what authorities say was a fake “attack.”

Multiple sources tell us, the City of Chicago could drop its case against Jussie to recover nearly half a mil because if he’s convicted in criminal court the judge would almost certainly order restitution on behalf of the City.

Thing is … it makes total sense for the City to press on with its lawsuit, despite the Special Prosecutor reinstituting 6 felony criminal charges against him. The standard of proof in a criminal case is way harder to meet than in a civil case. In a criminal case, the proof needs to be 99% solid against Jussie. In a civil case, it just has to be 51% – 49%.

Now, the new problem facing the City is that Jussie will almost certainly take the 5th against self-incrimination in the civil lawsuit because of the looming criminal case. In Illinois, if a defendant takes the 5th in a civil case, the judge can tell the jury it can conclude that person is hiding something.

One thing we know … Abel and Ola Osundairo — the 2 brothers who Jussie says attacked him — will testify that the whole thing was a setup masterminded by Jussie.

It’s an interesting situation because Jussie has brought the Osundairo brothers in as a defendant in the City of Chicago’s lawsuit, claiming they did indeed attack him. It’s gonna be hard to prove that if he doesn’t take the stand.