Jussie Smollett made the conscientious decision to testify in his own defense against allegations from prosecutors in Chicago that the actor staged a vile hate crime against himself with the assistance of his associates, brothers Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo, who allege he paid them to carry out the fake hate crime attack against him in 2019.

CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett testified Monday that he did drugs at a bathhouse and made out with one of the two brothers accusing him of staging a hate crime against himself.

The former “Empire” television star, 39, described meeting Abimbola Osundairo, when called to the stand by his defense at his trial on charges that he staged a hate crime against himself in January 2019 and lied to police about it.

“We were in a club, you go to the bathroom, go to a stall, do a bump, do a bump and then just kind of keep going in and then we went to the bathhouse,” Smollet said.

The special prosecutor tasked with probing the state attorney’s handling of the Jussie Smollett investigation in Chicago has ruled the office abused its discretion in the case against the actor, but did nothing criminal.

In a statement on the conclusions of his investigation, special prosecutor Dan Webb sharply criticized the handling of the Smollett case by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her assistant prosecutors, saying their handling was marked by disarray and misleading statements.

At first blush, the criminal cases against Jussie Smollett and Harry “The Hook” Aleman would seem to have little in common.

One involves a minor celebrity who gained international notoriety for allegedly staging a hoax hate crime on himself. The other was a shadowy Outfit enforcer who twice stood trial for the 1972 gangland slaying of a union steward.

Actor Jussie Smollett filed a counterclaim— which names the alleged acts of “multiple police officers and two brothers" — against the city of Chicago on Tuesday in connection with a purported hate crime that took place in late January.

A federal judge denied on Tuesday a request from the actor Jussie Smollett to throw out a lawsuit against him from the city of Chicago seeking $130,000.

“This will be going forward,” U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall told lawyers during a brief hearing Tuesday morning at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

Chicago hopes to recover $130,106 for the investigation it conducted after Smollett in January made the allegedly false claim that he’d been the victim of a racist and homophobic beating.

The prosecution of Jussie Smollett — a small-time felony case that has grown only more bizarre seemingly with each passing week — may have taken its strangest twist yet on Friday.

In a blistering and somewhat unexpected ruling, a veteran Cook County judge ordered a special prosecutor appointed to re-investigate the circumstances of the onetime “Empire” actor’s alleged hoax attack on a frigid January night in downtown Chicago.

CHICAGO—The union representing Chicago police officers along with more than a dozen suburban chiefs of police called for the resignation of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office last week dismissed all charges against actor Jussie Smollett.

The calls on Thursday come amid a wave of criticism of Ms. Foxx—from everyone from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to President Trump—for her office’s handling of the case, in which the “Empire” actor was accused of staging a hate crime against himself.

Virtue-signaling is now the refuge of scoundrels.

Since ancient times, it has always been scary when moral auditors audit their own. Or as the Roman satirist Juvenal put it of male guardians entrusted to shield chaste girls from randy males, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (“Who will watch the watchmen?”)

When humans sense that there’s neither an earthly nor divine deterrent between them and social acceptance, power, riches, or their appetites, what follows is a foregone conclusion.