“Today we witnessed an organized law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system,” Smollett’s lawyers said.

“The presumption of innocence, a bedrock, in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett and notably on the eve of a mayoral election.”

The statement goes on to say that the 36-year-old TV actor “fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing.”