(Photo Credits: Sister Circle Live [CC BY 3.0])
Jussie Smollett’s troubles keep piling up.
Last month, Smollett pleaded not guilty to his charge of felony disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false report with the Chicago police.
Last Friday—March 8, 2019—a Cook County grand jury indicted the embattled American singer and actor on 16 felony counts for allegedly staging a fake racist and homophobic hate crime attack on himself. According to Variety, “Eight of the charges involve false statements given to Officer Muhammed Baig, while the other eight pertain to a more detailed account given to Det. Kim Murray.”
In an interview with Anderson Cooper, one of the actor’s attorneys Mark Geragos, said Smollett “maintains his innocence” and called the indictment “prosecutorial overkill.” Geragos said, “This redundant and vindictive indictment is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines.”
Smollett’s arraignment is scheduled on Thursday—March 14, 2019—where he is expected to enter his plea.
The attack in question reportedly took place on January 29, 2019 wherein Smollett, an openly gay black man, was allegedly attacked by 2 men described as “white and wearing ski masks.” The men purportedly hurled racial and homophobic slurs before beating him up, putting a rope around his neck, pouring bleach on him, and shouting, “This is MAGA country” as they fled the scene.
A lot has happened since then. Jussie Smollett’s character Jamal Lyon has been written off the final two episodes of the upcoming season of the TV show Empire. In other news, multiple Northwestern Memorial Hospital employees have been fired for accessing Jussie Smollett’s medical records without proper authorization but the fired employees claimed they didn’t do it.
Meanwhile, Queen Latifah said in an interview that while she doesn’t “know what to make” of the scandal, that she is standing by Smollett “until someone can provide ‘definitive proof’ the incident was a hoax.” She explained, “The guy I’ve seen has always been someone who cares about people, who cares about others, and who’s very kind and who’s always been cool and sweet. And that’s just the guy I know.”
Terrence Howard, who played Jussie Smollett’s father on Empire, has posted a message on Instagram for Smollett saying, “All your lil homies got you… We love the hell outta you ♥.”
The downside of Jussie’s criminality is that it reinforced a negative, racist stereotype that black people are inherently criminal. It’s not right or fair, but black celebrities have the added burden of being cultural benchmarks and Smollett butchered that one. Now add on how foolish he simultaneously made gay men look. It’s bad enough that some people think gay men are shallow, drama queens looking for attention, but right on cue Smollett comes along to be the shallow, drama queen of the moment. The charges against him are 100% appropriate. The fact that all the people who rushed blindly to… Read more »
Way to go Queen. Who would give any credibility to the scumbags in the Chicago Police department given their crooked history and present? They currently have officers involved in crimes against black men in Chicago but butterball Johnson has the nerve to get on tv, feigning indignation that a “black man would do this” yet he as a black man does nothing to address his WHITE officers that harrass and kill black men. Simply rich. So many claim Jussie’s story doesn’t add up but aside from the interview on ABC, the “public” hasn’t actually gotten anything from HIM. Yet they… Read more »
I don’t think you should take your anger out on the Chicago Police Department. There is ample evidence to prove that Smollett plotted this ridiculous crime in order to either generate more popularity for himself and play the victim role and/or be able to demand more money for his acting role. I think Smollett should be ashamed of himself and hope that he will ultimately apologize for his lack of judgement. This diminishes the voices of the true victims of hate crimes and for that he should be punished. I hope that others will learn from this and not stoop… Read more »
Save your bullshit for someone who is buying it. You’re a broken record. All this “ample evidence” that you have not been provided personally. You’re as retarded as the religious fundamentalists. This is about your beliefs. Nothing more. It is amusing when the “left” sides with the right to justify the tendency to not believe victims when they were never inclined to believe a victim in the first place, unless of course they were whining about “reverse racism”. Your argument falls flat. Don’t waste your time replying to me because you won’t be changing my mind. And I assure you… Read more »
Here is something that I never hear a brother say: “I accept responsibility for my actions and accept my role in it.” But, it is easier to remain in the world of “Identity” (Black, Gay, Liberal, SELF-Victimized) than it is to grow and change. Now do not get me wrong. There are plenty of SELF-victims from all walks of life, but again, since we are talking about this Queen Jussie Full-Of-It, once again, black men are accusing the police (who did their job and very well) rather than beating up on Jussie for committing, cough, cough, excuse me, “allegedly” committed… Read more »
Spoken like a racist troll who spouts this nonsense meanwhile trolls for BBC online.
“Spoken like a racist troll” …. ?
You mean like Smollett? Who -literally- is a racist troll?
No, like your mom. If you need a reading comprehension tutor, I believe they are available at Sylvan Learning Center.
What about the two guys he allegally hired to carry out the attack? How could they have known the details of the attack when they gave their statements to police. I don’t know if he is guilty or not. But, I have to believe if he was attacked he would have had no trouble proving it and there wouldn’t be people that say they were hired. I think this man may need some therapy. I believe he did this to further his career but didn’t think it through well enough so it. has had the opposite affect. I believe the… Read more »
I believe that Smollett would have asked for more salary. Highly popular young actors have done that before. If he faked the crime, of course some penalty should apply. Whether he faked the crime, is a jury question. I do know the authorities tend to be harsher on those who they think have reported falsely, than on those who have committed crimes. I look at all the accusations made against performers recently, and how harsh the fallout has been. Retractions never brought restoration of what was lost. I look at all the complaints coming about past abuses, and I wonder… Read more »
Well, there’s no ‘over-punishing’ yet, the case has yet to be tried. We are ALL supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, and if he’s found ‘not guilty’ the police will have to go back and look at the evidence to find out who committed the crime. I’m willing to wait. It is just a sad consequence of modern times that everybody has put their ‘verdict’ in the press, pretending they have the knowledge and/or right to pass judgment here. I really don’t care what famous people say, the man reported a crime, the police did an investigation, and now… Read more »
Well, number of charges dosen’t equate to seriousness of crime / sentence. The worst charge, the federal felony mail fraud / fake terrorism hasn’t even been brought yet. I see your point… but at the same time this guy is -still- lying about what happened. He would have no problem sending someone to jail for this “crime”, he even offered to testify against, and publicly accused, the two people he saw in the video of being his attackers. Until he realized who they were. He was ready to send 2 innocent people to jail for his fake crime… and this… Read more »
I’m sorry but if this is true, he just made minorities and gays look bad af! we face enough discrimination and if you’re a racial minority even more. this doesn’t help real cases where those stories need to be validated (with proper evidence, before you people y’all be sayin’ that lol) and believed. imagine being an actual victim of a hate crime assault and now people be wondering if you’re making stuff up. it’s bad enough certain racial profiling cops be playing bad guy as is. and yes, if he was white blonde pretty boy, he’d be forgiven in a… Read more »
We should ignore the fact that he is a black gay man. The fact that this is even a story is because he is famous. The reason many are coming to his defense is that they are claiming that this is racism and prejudice.
This was a hate crime no matter if it was real or not. the only question is was it against a black gay man or a white Trump supporter.
I hope they throw the book at the attention-seeking moron. From what I saw on TV commercials, his character is getting killing on the show. Way to go, Jessie Mullett!
Chicago is an awfully dangerous city, with an incredible number of black victims that nobody hears about on TV, but when it’s someone ‘famous’ the police takes this seriously. Chicago is also a 1000% solidly democrat, Trump hating city- so the police probably really, really wanted Smollett’s story to be true. These days, celebrities have to out-hate the President daily, it’s what they do. So imagine the police’s surprise when they realized they’d been duped. They did an incredibly thorough investigation, getting countless subpoenas to look at every camera for miles, interviewing hundreds of people, all because they were probably… Read more »
He wanted attention, a “media gang bang of epic proportions,” as his lawyer told Anderson Cooper, and that’s exactly what the Chicago Police Department is giving him. He’ll have a silly trial in which he performs some monologue on the stand, then he’ll either be acquitted, or he’ll be convicted and receive a year probation. Either way, it’s much ado about nothing and Smollett’s career is over.
Folks, let keep everything in perspective. He was dead wrong and whatever punishment our judiciary system impose on him will be deserved. We must not forget he didn’t kill noone, sexually abuse any women (President Trump) or kids (Several Priest). He physically didn’t hurt anyone except himself with the scar i seen under his eye. The people who rushed blindly to his defense was based on the racial climate, past unfair racial injustices and past racial incidents that’s been going on for years and still going on (Charlottesville). We must confess that everything he made up is sadly believable. So… Read more »
There will never be “racial unity” with racist trash like Jussie Smollett making up false hate crime allegations. There is no end to the left’s attacks on conservatives and when their narrative of the “racist white MAGA hat wearers” is proven false, they try and twist the lie into a call for “unity” and continue to play the victim. They’re cry-bullies. But have no doubt there is a victim in this crime, white Conservatives, but unlike the left, we’re not likely to cry about it- we expect it from them. Justice would have been nice, but you can’t expect that… Read more »
“black privilege”? Never heard that one…You have good imagination. I don’t understand why YOU think you know what happened in that case? Did you watch the press conference? They give few information in there like the 3500$ check, or the 2 brothers… you should watch.
Only person whining and crying is you..lol And you’re not even a victim. I’d hate to see you if you were actually harmed. White conservative were hurt only in their wild imaginations. You can claim hoax until you’re blue in the face but the reality is that White conservatives have a negative connotation because they earned it. Read a history book. You might learn something about how blacks have been treated. You may not be so quick to PRETEND that you are or ever was oppressed. I know this Jussie thing was your one opportunity to claim victimhood but you… Read more »
The former actor actually made this about race.. not anyone else in the public. He was the one who LITERALLY said it was white dudes wearing maga hats, you seem to have missed that skewed fact and are using your own made up fantasy lol
You literally are a lying salty troll. He said nothing about race that you can verify as coming from him. You Trumpanzees are sick. It’s quite obvious you needed something to divert attention from yet simultaneously mirror the Mueller investigation. You idiots are the real suspects.
While I feel like what he did was a pretty shitty and disgraceful thing and I’m not standing up for him one bit, I feel his prosecution is a bit overkill. If he wasn’t a “celebrity” and making headlines for the CPD, would he really end up with 16 felony charges? I mean there are far, FAR more serious crimes that happen out there that go with less than half the amount of charges stuck to them. I feel like because he’s a black gay man who is in the spotlight for CPD, they are going to roast him to… Read more »
While I severely hope he is innocent, lets not forget the OVERWHELMING amount of evidence stacked against him in this case. Let’s mention a few factors such as: 1) the obvious transaction details showing that Smollett paid the two brothers, 2) All the video security footage, taxi/uber records that show nothing of what Smollett claims as well as showing the brothers were elsewhere during the time of the said attack, and 3) the obvious financial motive. I hope that he is telling the truth, just for the principle of the situation, but the evidence seems to be heavily stacked against… Read more »
If I had the money I’d pay those brothers for another service. Just saying
All involved need to pay some kind of price so others can understand that what they did is something that is unacceptable and unfair especially to our community….if found guilty.
How many books and how large can you throw at him! He deserves every page if gulity.
I will bet a 5.00 check on that and all of hollywood that twitters before the facts are in !
If this is not call the kettle black ! I hope these people choke on this !
“… nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines.”???
So far it’s so much more like shooting fish in a barrel.
The story has not held up since Moment One. The defense attorneys have delivered nothing to support it since they were hired. Hopefully for him they’ve got some big rabbits in their legal hats.
Haha, I feel ya there.
Bad acting by Jussie with Robin Roberts. It was SO BAD. He should get an Emmy for worst actor.
How are salty mf’s feeling now? LMAO