The former Empire star, Jussie Smollett after his 2021 conviction for lying about being the victim of a hate crime in 2019, has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to throw out the case.

Smottett was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct.

However, on Monday he filed the petition to the state’s high court to review the court’s ruling. 

According to reports, his lawyer wrote in the filing “What should have been a straightforward case has been complicated by the intersection of politics and public outrage.”

He continues to reportedly maintain his innocence and has argued that he faced double jeopardy when a special prosecutor filed renewed charges against him after Cook County prosecutors dropped their initial criminal case.

This filing comes as a three-judge panel upheld his convictions last December on a 2-1 vote, opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court.

It all started with Smollett who had reported to police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks. The police then investigated and it led to Smollett himself being arrested on charges he had orchestrated the entire thing.

It was then revealed by investigators that the 41-year-old actor paid two men (brothers: Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo) whom he knew from work on “Empire,” which was filmed in Chicago.

Prosecutors then said Smollett told the men what slurs to shout, and to yell that he was in “MAGA country,” a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.

The Osundairo brothers testified in the trial that Smollett recruited them to fake an attack on him in downtown Chicago in January 2019.

They said Smollett orchestrated the hoax, telling them to rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.

Now he wants the case thrown out.