A while back I heard about this awful attack on the Empire actor where he claimed he was attacked by 2 white men wearing MAGA hats. They reportedly tied a noose around his neck, threw bleach on him and called him racist and homophobic slurs. It was pretty scary stuff and seemed almost too extreme to be true. Turns out it most likely was. It's being reported now that the actor planned the whole thing, hired two men to attack him all because his character was being written off the show. This is unbelievable turn of events, and if he did plan the whole thing he is looking at serious jail time.
Ya, a lot of internet talk from the beginning that this seemed fishy. Now speculation is that the Chicago police has been hesitant to charge him for fear of racism accusations- so they are possibly leaking lots of these new details so the media and public convicts him first, making it easier for the police to formally charge.
This just seemed to be too specific of events. I doubt that people are running around with bleach and nooses hoping that a famous gay black celebrity just shows up. It just feels really staged.
If he would have stuck with, a couple of guys jumped me and beat me up while yelling racial slurs, then it feels like something that's actually real.
Instead this whole thing feels like a performance.
If it does turn out that its stage, then its pretty much career over for a while, plus he should be facing at least mischief charges.
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Seems the reports are lining up that he was BS'ing all of this. As mentioned, was too detailed for a random attack. The fact he thought this could work indicates stupid is, as stupid does.
Has there been similar incidents like this from celebrities? Pulling off a hoax in a PR stunt?
I went down the rabbit hole on this one. What an absolute, complete narcissist this guy is. I guess he got what he wanted though, he's more famous now than he's ever been!
I hope he gets charged for this....how many wasted man hours by the Chicago PD because of this guy?
In a city with a horrendous homicide rate, im sure there are other things detectives could be devoting their time to. Assclown.
Not to mention completely unnecessarily stoking racial and political tensions. The media who gleefully ran with this story before the facts were in are culpable as well. Idiots.
will be interesting to hear his "mea culpa" whenever he opts to resurface
Apparently he's hiring a relatively big time lawyer, Mark Geragos:
Brad Edwards
@tvbrad
NOW: Jussie Smollett may be lawyering up, WAY UP, his team’s talking with famed LA defense attorney Mark Geragos - whose rep’d Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Chris Brown & on.
His lawyer is probably going to tell him to use the depression/mental illness line.
Apparently he was going to testify against the 2 people the Chicago police had in custody - before he knew it was his buddies. The guy was willing to attempt to put 2 innocent people in jail. When he did learn the identities of the guys in custody he stopped cooperating. Who does that unless you aren't playing with a full deck
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Why is this not bigger news? Is it confirmed he lied? Is it big news and I just haven’t noticed? He should seriously be locked up for a long time if what’s being said in this thread is true. Lock him up and throw away the key he clearly has no concern for human life other than his own so why should he be walking free. To think he would send 2 inoccent people to jail for publicity or to further damage race relations? Disgusting if true.
Why is this not bigger news? Is it confirmed he lied? Is it big news and I just haven’t noticed? He should seriously be locked up for a long time if what’s being said in this thread is true. Lock him up and throw away the key he clearly has no concern for human life other than his own so why should he be walking free. To think he would send 2 inoccent people to jail for publicity or to further damage race relations? Disgusting if true.
Because with something like this, you have to be very, very careful and have every single unassailable duck in a row that you can have before you go back to him and say "You lied and orchestrated this yourself."
If the PD was wrong in any facet, can you imagine the huge blowback that they would face? "You must always believe the victim" has become a huge rallying point, and if someone is going to turn around and accuse the victim, they better make that accusation as insanely bulletproof as possible before even uttering it.
It is not 'confirmed' that he has lied yet, as he is refusing to talk to authorities. But...it looks very, very bad for him right now...and his dodging around the issue is not helping the optics at all.