Hours after Empire actor Jussie Smollett was indicted by a Chicago grand jury on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report that he was the victim of a hate crime, his lawyer Mark Geragos told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that Jussie Smollett was the victim of a “media gangbang” and “media lynching.”…

The attorney went on to claim that reports that Smollett was dissatisfied with his Empire pay and had been suspended from the show were both false, prompting him to blast the media at large for the way it has covered this story.

“What is happening here is, frankly, a media gangbang of this guy of unprecedented proportions,” Geragos exclaimed. ”That’s the reason I got into this. I’ve never seen a media pendulum swing more quickly and more viciously and rob somebody of their presumption of innocence like this case has. It’s startling the way people assume he’s guilty.”