Jussie Smollett’s acting success started at such a young age that it seemed as if he’d been born with his star risen. He appeared in Walt Disney’s surprise hit The Mighty Ducks at the age of 10. By the age of 12, he was a leading character on an ABC sitcom. Come his early 30s, Smollett earned praise as the “standout” star on Empire, one of the most watched shows during its five-year run.
But late one night in January 2019, Smollett’s life took an unexpected twist. Smollett, who is gay and Black, claimed that he was the victim of a hate crime when two men assaulted him on his walk home from a Chicago restaurant. In the weeks that followed, though, his story became complicated when allegations emerged that Smollett had staged the attack himself. Smollett’s story became the most high-profile false police report case in modern American history.
Initial Claims
According to Smollett, he was attacked by two masked men on the night of January 29, 2019, around 2:00 a.m. The assailants punched Smollett in the face, poured bleach on him, called him the N-word and wrapped a rope around his neck.
He was taken to the hospital for treatment. While questioned by police, the actor claimed that perpetrators had told him, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to the political slogan of President Donald Trump.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) initially investigated the case as a potential hate crime.
Sympathy from public officials immediately poured in for Smollett, with Democratic presidential candidates Cory Booker and Kamala Harris calling the incident an “attempted… lynching.” Trump also strongly condemned the attack, deeming it “horrible.”
Investigation
The CPD launched a thorough investigation into the alleged crime, but they were unable to find substantial evidence corroborating Smollett’s version of events. He also refused to provide the police with his cellphone, although this drew no ire from the CPD, with the department’s superintendent Eddie Johnson telling NBC News, “He’s a victim. We don’t treat him like a criminal.”
On February 11, 2019, Smollett provided CPD with a redacted PDF version of his phone log from the night of the alleged attack.
But the case began to shift against Smollett after the February 13 arrest of Obabinjo (Ola) and Abimbola (Abel) Osundairo, brothers from Nigeria who served as extras on Empire. The Osundairo brothers had purchased several items from a store in Chicago before the attack, including ski masks and gloves.
During questioning, the brothers told investigators that they had staged the attack at Smollett’s behest, and that he had paid them $3,500 for the staging (plus $100 for the supplies). The CPD later alleged that he had staged the attack because he was dissatisfied with his salary on Empire and wanted to boost his public profile.
Prosecution
Smollett was arrested, largely on the basis of the Osundairo brothers’ testimony, and charged by a Cook County, Illi., grand jury with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for filing false reports of a crime. But a week later, the Cook County state’s attorney office, led by Kim Foxx, dropped the charges in exchange for Smollett’s forfeiture of his $10,000 bail and community service.
That decision was met with controversy, with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel saying that, “You cannot have, because of a person’s position, one set of rules apply to them and one set of rules apply to everybody else.”
Foxx defended her office’s decision, likening the alleged offense to a prank fire alarm.
But the following year, in February 2020, six new charges of disorderly conduct stemming from the case were brought forward by Dan Webb, a special prosecutor assigned to investigate the initial handling of the case. This time, the case went to trial, during which Webb argued to the jury that Smollett had been motivated by hate mail he’d received while working on Empire, for which the producers had supposedly not shown sufficient alarm.
After a nine-hour jury deliberation, Smollett was convicted of five of the six counts of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 150 days imprisonment and fined $145,000—$120,000 of which was restitution to the CPD for overtime incurred by officers working on his case.
He was released six days into that sentence while his lawyers appealed the decision. On November 21, 2024, his case was overturned by the state supreme court after his attorneys successfully argued to a judge that he shouldn’t have been prosecuted again after he had agreed to plea terms that had led to the initial charges being dropped.
Impact
Many of the public figures who expressed outrage on Smollett’s behalf retracted their initial statements, with police superintendent Eddie Johnson saying that Smollett “took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”
To this day, Smollett continues to deny wrongdoing and maintains that he was the victim of an attack.
But even with the successfully overturned conviction, the scandal of the case inarguably hurt his career. Despite being a focal point of Empire, Smollett was quietly written off the show after his arrest, and he did not appear in its sixth and final season.
He has not worked on network television since, although Smollett will compete in Season 4 the reality show Special Forces that premieres in September 2025.
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