Mark Geragos, one of the attorneys on Jussie Smollett’s legal team, had strong words for Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel after their press conference on Tuesday.
Appearing on “The Adam Carolla Show” on Wednesday, Geragos said he was “irate” about the press conference, in which Johnson and Emanuel blasted Chicago prosecutors’ decision to drop all charges against Smollett.
“I don’t think the police chief is long for his job,” Geragos said, calling the appearance an “abomination.”
Johnson and Emanuel appeared together before reporters on Tuesday to voice their strong disagreement with the Chicago State’s Attorney’s office announcement that it would not pursue the 16 felony charges against the “Empire” star.
“Do I think justice was served? No,” Johnson said. Emanuel called the move “a whitewash of justice.”
Smollett was accused of faking a Jan. 31 hate crime in which he said two men beat him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs. Police said that Smollett paid the men to stage the attack because he was dissatisfied with his pay on the Fox musical drama. Smollett has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation.
“The discovery, in my humble opinion, did not support their theory,” Geragos said on Wednesday’s radio show. “And it certainly did not support — from an evidentiary basis — the idea that [Smollett] engineered this.”
Prosecutors dropped the charges, citing Smollett’s voluntary community service and mandating that he forfeit his $10,000 bond payment to the city. However, First Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Joe Magats said the move “did not exonerate” Smollett.
“We stand behind the investigation, we stand behind the decision to charge him and we stand behind the charges in the case,” Magats told the New York Times. “The mere fact that it was disposed of in an alternative manner does not mean that there were any problems or infirmities in the case or the evidence.”
Magats went even further in an interview with CBS Chicago, saying, “I do not believe [Smollett] is innocent.”
Geragos said he believes the two men who attacked Smollett earlier this year — brothers Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo — acted of their own accord.
“I think they came to the realization that this thing was cooked up while two people were sitting in custody, then they got way out over their skis,” he said. “I honestly do not believe that [Smollett] had anything to do with it whatsoever.”
A Chicago Police Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.