The long-awaited trial of actor Jussie Smollett on felony disorderly conduct charges begins today in a Chicago court.
The former Empire actor faces the charges in connection with an incident that occurred in 2019 when he told police–and the media–that he’d been a victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime.
A subsequent investigation turned up evidence that he may have actually faked the attack, paying his alleged assailants to help him stage the crime in order to get a pay raise on Empire.
Related: Jussie Smollett pops back up to receive even more bad news
Smollett’s trial has faced several delays, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in part due to a strange set of circumstances surrounding the case.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx initially recused herself from the case after it came to light that she’d communicated directly with Smollett’s family early in the investigation. She later filed charges only to abruptly drop them shortly thereafter. A special prosecutor then came on the case, filed charges, dropped them, then filed them again.
Amid the chaos, Smollett’s career imploded. Producers dropped him from the final season of Empire, and he hasn’t appeared on screen since. Smollett did direct the independent film B-Boy Blues, which is set to debut on the film festival circuit later this year.
Related: Jussie Smollett says there’s a silver lining to his story…somewhere
The saga of Jussie Smollett began in January 2019 when the actor alleged that two men wearing “Make America Great Again” hats attacked and beat him on the streets of Chicago. Smollett further alleged the pair tied a noose around his neck and doused him in a bleach-like chemical.
Smollett initially received an outpouring of support from co-stars, Hollywood stars, and American politicians. it all came crashing down, however, when police presented evidence that Smollett had paid two brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, $3,500 to help him stage the attack.
Smollett, for his part, has always denied any wrongdoing. If convicted of faking the attack, he faces up to three years in prison.
SamB
He really needs to be held accountable. I hope he goes to jail, even for a bit.
barryaksarben
KYLE RITTENHOUSE SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. HOw manuy false police reports go this far? NONE. It is a fine or probation but the chicago cops couldnt shoot this guy so they will not stop till he serves 20 years. YES, I think he is guilty but he is being punished far out of the norm. ANd so will Ghislane Maxwell. None of the men in that little scenario other than epstein will get any punishment including Trump, Prince Andrew, Clinton or Dersowhitz
Fahd
I’ll be interested to see how the trial comes out. How many trials are there for “felony disorderly conduct”? lol
Imo, a waste of judicial resources.
Seems a more important investigation should focus on the prosecutors’ offices in Chicago — this case has been full of “funny business” there.
Openminded
It will definitely be “interesting”. I’d like to know why all the on again/off again changes in the charges. I want to think there has already been enough evidence exposed on TV to convict him, but the limbo of charges coming and going could indicate weak evidence or possibly, someone influencing the officials to either press charges or drop charges. If the later is the case, I’d much rather see that exposed and punished than his alleged heinous crime, not that it doesn’t deserve the court’s time also.
Essie
This seems to have been going on for way longer than 2019!! I really don’t want to see him go to jail but he should be punished; maybe found guilty but given community service and a fine or something. His once promising career is clearly over so I think that’s punishment enough. There is no way Hollywood would allow him back. I just don’t see him doing anything, even directing independent films.
frapachino
Hate crime HOAX you mean, its hard for radical leftists to say the truth.
Cam
OH MY GOD!! You mean to say we’ve exposed so many of the right wing troll’s screenames that you’ve dug this old one up again?? You haven’t used this one in ages!
Kangol2
B-Boy Blues is now out and screened at the American Black Film Festival in New York this month. It’s a great film. (When are you going to write about, Queerty?) Too bad he nuked his career and life with this stunt because the film is another sign of how talented he really is. At this point the trial is overkill; Chicago has a 1,000 problems and this ain’t one. Meanwhile, people have done far worse (staged coups, committed treason, raped underage girls, shot people dead in the street, all of which have had serious impacts on this society, etc.) and are walking around as if no law applies to them.
edwardnvirginia
VERY true that many moral miscreants, law breaking reprobates, and outright horrible people escape justice.
Such as
Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislane Maxwell, and other elites and hosts of other ‘progressives’ guilty of horrible sexual abuses (including sexual predation).
Including many queer male and queer female and queer trans and queer other identified sexual predators … perhaps thousands of times a day in queer cruising social media, etc
Including many queer advocate for queer youth who are ACTUALLY predating young queer people while ‘pretending’ to have their best interests ‘at heart’ … when they are ACTUALLY grooming vulnerable queer youth for sex trafficking and labor trafficking.
While sex and labor trafficking is a huge and growing immoral and illegal and anti-human criminal enterprise around the world … what large social group is NOT talking about it among their own group?: queer media! queer organizations! queer ‘woke’ and ‘progressive’ leaders!
Shocking, ain’t it?!! Well yes! But not surprising because queer media, queer organizations and queer leaders are so selfish, greedy, and morally ugly that they are think they have no warts, and their shit don’t stink. Including the ridiculous queer media, queers orgs and queer leaders who say that fetishists – e.g. who actually eat shit, real shit – are part of the ‘lgbtqiap pppp pee pee poo poo’ ‘identity’.
Cam
Chicago has a much lower crime rate than many cities in red states, such as Memphis, Houston, St. Louis, etc. The reason you keep hearing about Chicago is because places like FOX News wanted to attack it because Obama was from there and it was in a blue state.
They will never use percentages, or per capita numbers when they mention Chicago, just numbers of crimes, but of course they leave out that Chicago is many times larger than the other cities so of course the NUMBER of crimes is higher, but the crimes per capita are lower.
Kangol2
@Cam, you’re correct about Chicago. When I said the city has 1,000 problems, I mean the entire range, not merely crime. In recent rankings of the 50 most high-crime cities, the top 10 included Albuquerque, Stockton, Springfield (MO), and Little Rock. Chicago is far down the list at 31.
Openminded
FYI. Memphis is the largest Blue Island in the Red state of TN. If not for St. Jude’s Hospital the world would be better off if that crime filled city washed off into the Mississippi River. I know for a fact that State Regulatory agencies require their inspectors to work in pairs. One to watch the vehicle while one does inspections. They also require them to only work between 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and then get the Hell out of Dodge. Home to some of the most crooked politicians known to exist.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Wow! After waiting nearly THIRTY years I can’t believe it finally got some one to back it. I saw the trailer and personally think they went to every gym in NYC to find nothing but the right body types (if you get my drift) to star in it. Yes, just as it became obvious in the Noah’s Ark movie that all of the actors appeared to have been locked in a gym for several months before filming its clear thats what might have happened once again. They look TOO perfect (shaved and all). Its sad the trailer give the impression one is watching a Myvidster clip instead of a movie adaptation of a good book (I gave several as christmas presents in 1994).
I can’t for the life in me figure out why they allowed Smollet to be involved in it. Common sense should have told everyone his controversial rear-end will dampen things.
Chrisk
They didn’t pick smollet because he’s just such a talented director. They knew the controversy it would generate and thus interest in the movie.
Kangol2
@Bertha, when the film screens more widely you should watch it. It’s far better than the trailer. Smollett for all of his faults, did a very good job, working closely with James Earl Hardy to adapt it into a movie set today. So don’t just base your critique on the trailer; the film is actually good.
Terrycloth
Fine jussie and give him 3 years prison..nothing less for time served previously..to give him a small fine or a couple months prison time is a slap in the face to the police Dept , the lawyers time, effort and energy investigating this hoax..
bakeembakeem
Why is so much time being wasted upon this liar, had I done a scheme such as this, my ass would still be in jail. Let’s face it, these celebrities have done far worse and never got the ongoing media attention, miss Jesse is a vicious lying queen and deserves to go to jail, as well the brothers being a part of the scheme
KyleMichelSullivan
Something about this whole thing bothers me. I don’t know for sure if he did pull this stunt or didn’t, but the whole lead-up to it reeks of political posturing more than anything else. And why are judicial resources being wasted on this when prosecutors let cops off for shooting people in the back? It all just stinks.
bigrawtop
It doesn’t make sense that he did it. What makes better sense is that he is an Black man being set up or disregarded.
There are a lot more stunts one could do to get attention. The details of it make no sense.
747jumbojet
He lied! He’s an embarrassment! No sympathy….NEXT!!
bsg1967
Nothing gonna happen parole at worst