Chicago has delivered a bill to the legal team of puzzlingly-dismissed hoaxer Jussie Smollett.

According to a law department spokesperson, on Thursday, the city sent a letter to defense lawyers seeking $130,000 from the Empire actor.

The letter requests “immediate payment” of the dough, which was “expended on overtime hours in the investigation of this matter.” If it isn’t served up within a week, the “Department of Law may prosecute” the disgraced star “for making a false statement to the city.” Alternately, Chicago may “pursue any other legal remedy available at law.”

Jussie’s attorneys have a wholly different idea: In a statement, they demanded a huge “Our bad” from both Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a hunk o’ innocent man mud-draggin’.

Bold move:

“It is the Mayor and the Police Chief who owe Jussie — owe him an apology — for dragging an innocent man’s character through the mud. Jussie has paid enough.”

Rahm’s with the city. At a Thursday press conference, he insisted Jussie cough up the money:

“Given that [Jussie] doesn’t feel any sense of contrition and remorse, my recommendation is when he writes the check, in the memo section, he can put the [words] ‘I’m accountable for the hoax.'”

The mayor also decried prosecutors’ “whitewash of justice.”

Rahm’s mad:

“Where is the accountability in the system? You cannot have – because of a person’s position – one set of rules applies to them and another set of rules apply to everyone else. Our officers did hard work, day in and day out — countless hours working to unwind what actually happened that night. The city saw its reputation dragged through the mud. … It’s not just the officers’ work, but the work of the grand jury that made a decision based on only a sliver of the evidence. Because of the judge’s decision, none of that evidence will ever be made public.”

Not good.

So what message, at this point, can we glean from the entire Smollett ordeal?

Back to Rahm:

“[This case] sends a clear message that if you’re in a position of influence and power, you’ll be treated one way, and if you’re not, you’ll be treated another way.”

So far, that sounds about right.

-Alex

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