Jussie Smollett's legal team is blaming the Chicago Police Department for taking his bogus assault allegations so seriously and devoting so many resources to finding the nonexistent Trump-supporters he alleged attacked him.  That's my rough summary of a brief filed by the actor's lawyers attempting to get a lawsuit against him thrown out of court.  Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times first broke the story:

[T]he latest court filing contends even if Smollett did make a false report, there is no way the city can assert he would have known the city would investigate — and investigate it to the extent cops did.

"We contend the city is wrong," [Smollett's lawyer William J.] Quinlan said of the city's assertion that Smollett should have known the police would log nearly 2,000 hours in overtime trying to resolve the case. " ... The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn't presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming."

He added: "Smollett has no control over that."

Believe him at your own risk (photo credit: Sister Circle Live).

In the legal brief, obtained by Sneed, Smollett makes clear that he "disputes any and all assertions that he made a false statement and was not a victim of a crime."

So, just in case Smollett is found in court to have filed a false report, he wants to make sure he is not liable for the financial burden his false report inflicted on the City of Chicago. Evidently, they were wrong to believe him and devote so many resources to such a high-profile case.

Does this mean that I the CPD had ignored the claim, or merely conducted a cursory probe, that Smollett would not have raised a stink?  That he would not have called in help from his entertainment industry and political friends to demonize the Chicago cops as racist tools of Trump-supporters?  Does anyone seriously believe that?  The very political motivation behind falsely claiming that his assailants wore MAGA hats makes this scenario impossible to believe.

But let all law enforcement agencies take note that Jussie Smollett's counsel has instructed them that they should take his allegations as unserious, and that devoting resources to investigating any complaints he might make is a risk for them.