Chicago Police: Smollett Staged Attack

UPDATE 2/21/2019 1:30PM: actor Jussie Smollett faked a threatening letter and then, a week later, staged a racist, anti-gay attack in downtown Chicago because he was “dissatisfied with his salary” on the “Empire” television show, Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Thursday morning.

The Chicago Tribune report Smollett paid two brothers he knew $3,500 to fake the attack in the 300 block of East North Water Street around 2 a.m. Jan. 29, Johnson said, striking him a few times and putting a noose around his neck in front of a camera they erroneously thought caught the act. The superintendent called the scheme “shameful” and wondered how an African-American could set up a racist attack for a “publicity stunt.”

“First, Smollett attempted to gain attention by sending a false letter that relied on racial, homophobic and political language,” Johnson said. “When that didn’t work, Smollett paid $3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago’s reputation through he mud in the process. … This stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary. So he concocted a story about being attacked.”


UPDATE 2/21/2019 11 AM:  Accusing him of slapping the city in the face, Chicago police announced Thursday that “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett had been charged with concocting an attack in Streeterville, because “he was dissatisfied with his salary.”

“Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Thursday morning. “This publicity stunt was a scar that Chicago didn’t earn, and certainly didn’t deserve.”

Earlier posting....

In little more than three weeks, "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett went from a sympathetic victim of a racist, anti-gay attack to an accused liar whose allegedly staged assault further roiled divisions across the country.

The Chicago Tribune reports the 36-year-old Smollett was charged Wednesday evening with disorderly conduct, a felony, after allegedly filing a false police report about an attack he said occurred as he walked to his apartment building in Streeterville last month. If convicted, he could face probation to three years in prison.

“Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence," Smollett's attorneys, Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson, said in a statement. "Particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense."

While Chicago police initially launched a hate crime investigation, authorities had recently said they were looking into whether Smollett paid two brothers he knew to stage the attack on Jan. 29. The brothers appeared before a grand jury earlier Wednesday, according to their attorney, Gloria Schmidt.

She did not expect any charges to be filed against her clients, and said authorities did not offer them any deals or immunity. “You don’t need immunity when you have the truth,” she said.

The brothers spent “countless hours” cooperating with police, Schmidt said, and she urged Smollett to come clean as well. “I think that Jussie’s conscience is probably not letting him sleep right now, so I think that he should unload that conscience and just come out and tell the American people what actually happened."

BREAKING—

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has approved a disorderly conduct charge on Jussie Smollett.@cbschicago https://t.co/GT6h2g6Y9a

— Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) February 21, 2019

Smollett, who is openly gay, has said he was walking from a Subway sandwich shop to his apartment around 2 a.m. Jan. 29 when two men walked up, yelled racial and homophobic slurs, hit him and wrapped a noose around his neck. Smollett said they also yelled, “This is MAGA country,” referring to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.