Jussie Smollett leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse with family members after the verdict
(Picture: AP)Actor Jussie Smollett faces jail after staging a hate crime attack against himself and repeatedly lying to police about the hoax.
The 39-year-old star of Empire filed police reports in January 2019 claiming he had been attacked in Chicago by two men who had tied a noose around his neck.
Smollett, who is gay, alleged the men had shouted ‘MAGA country’ – a reference to President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan – and used homophobic and racist slurs while punching him.
But after Chicago Police Department officers combed through CCTV and spent thousands of hours investigating, they accused the actor of staging the attack to boost his TV profile and earnings.
At trial, Smollett insisted the attack was real and denied concocting a hoax, but a jury of six men and six women found him guilty on five felony charges involving lies to police.
Lawyers for the TV star immediately signalled his intention to appeal the verdict, as Smollett now faces up to three years in prison for each charge.
“We’re obviously very disappointed”, said Nenye Uche, Smollett’s lawyer.
“We obviously respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict. The verdict is inconsistent. You cannot say that Jussie is lying and Jussie is not lying for the same exact incidents. So we feel 100 per cent confident that this case will be won on appeal.”
Smollett rose to fame on the award-winning TV show Empire, starring alongside Terrence Howard and Taraji P Henson in a drama about a hip hop dynasty. But the actor was written out of the show as he faced allegations of lying about being the victim of a hate crime.
On January 29, 2019, Smollett filed police reports saying he had been attacked by two masked men at around 2am as he walked home from a Subway restaurant, claiming he may have had bleach poured over his head.
Police issued a public appeal to find the two supposed attackers, as Smollett’s family decried the “violent and unprovoked attack” and public figures including Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted their support.
By February 15, officers were questioning Nigerian-born brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who insisted they had been paid £2,600 ($3,500) by Smollett to stage the attack.
The actor gave evidence during his trial, denying paying for a hoax attack and suggesting a cheque to Abimbola – an extra on Empire – was actually payment for a meal and a personal training workout plan.
Smollett stood by his account of the ‘attack’, but faced accusations that he had staged the incident to help boost his TV show salary, then a reported $100,000 per episode.
After the guilty verdicts, special prosecutor Dan Webb told reporters he will use Smollett’s testimony during the trial at sentencing.
“For Mr Smollett to get up and lie for hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct”, he said.
“Mr Smollett would not have lost this case, had the jury not concluded that he’d lied to them. The fact that he came up with a completely ridiculous story to explain his misconduct did not affect the verdict.”
Judge James Linn ordered further investigations ahead of sentencing, on a date to be set, and released Smollett on bail.
The star was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct and cleared of a sixth charge, relating to a further allegation of lying to police.
