Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been found guitly of 5 of the 6 charges he faced in relation to his hate crime hoax. Smollett claimed two Trump-loving bigots beat him up, tied a noose around his neck and doused him in bleach on a blistering night in January 2019.
In fact, Smollett paid two Nigerian brothers to stage an attack. The charges stem from Smollett lying to police about the attack. In his closing, special prosecutor Dan Webb said Smollett caused Chicago police to spend enormous resources investigating an alleged crime that they now believe is fake. Smollett told police someone put a noose around his neck and yelled racist and homophobic slurs during the January 2019 attack near his downtown Chicago home.
The brothers testified last week that Smollett recruited and paid them for the hoax, telling them to put a noose around his neck, yell racist and homophobic slurs and rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.