Emanuel still demanding answers, won’t rule out lawsuit over Smollett probe cost

After making the rounds of the morning network news shows to express his outrage about the Jussie Smollett case, Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters in Chicago he is not letting go of his demand for answers.

The mayor refused to say whether the city is contemplating a civil suit against Smollett to recover the cost of the police investigation.

But it sure sounded like it.

“He’s either a person who pulled a hoax around a hate crime for his racial background and sexual orientation. Or he is totally a victim and innocent. But both can’t be right. And the city of Chicago deserves an answer. They deserve an answer about accountability and responsibility in the system,” the mayor said.

“I’m reminded of the opening scenes of Hamlet when the soldier Marsella says, `Something is rotten in Denmark.’ It doesn’t add up. Nothing here adds up.”

Emanuel said Chicago taxpayers “put a lot of resources” into the police investigation, because “we take the issue of a hate crime in our city” seriously.

“In the process of uncovering whether a hate crime happened, they found out it was a hoax. Which they stood by [at] the state’s attorney’s office,” the mayor said.

“The person who committed that hoax is walking around saying `I’m innocent.’ I would like a resolution in the sense of accountability and responsibility in the system, of who is right. And on the other end, how did we get to a situation that, with nobody’s knowledge, one of the cases that people watched not just here in the city but around the county [was dropped]. Done.”