During a recent interview with Cam Newton on the Funky Friday podcast, actor Jussie Smollett touched on people disputing his homophobia and hate crime claims in 2019 after he was accused of fabricating the attack.
In January 2019, Smollett, a 43-year-old black and gay actor, claimed that two men in “Make America Great Again” hats attacked him, shouting “this is MAGA country.” Smollett claimed that two men yelled homophobic and racial slurs, put a noose around his neck, and doused him with bleach, prompting a costly search by Chicago police that exceeded $130,000, Face2Face Africa previously reported.
Smollett told Newton that he was OK with people choosing whether or not to believe his claims. “At this point, I’ve kind of set into the fact that most people have made up their minds about what they want to believe, whether that’s in support of me or against me,” he said, per Complex.
“Either way, okay. Because at this point, my people know. My mother has always known. My siblings have always known. My love has always known.”
Smollett, in the interview, also explained why he supposedly fought back when he was allegedly being attacked.
“I wanted to speak for, but I didn’t want to be a part of the club of people who’ve been attacked, assaulted, or jumped, especially for the reason that it seemed like I was,” he explained. “That’s where the performative nature of ‘he hit me, and I hit his ass back’ came from, to seem less weak. That certainly comes from being young and hearing my pops say, ‘Better know how to fight, or people will think you’re a sissy.'”
Smollett received an outpouring of support and made national headlines in the wake of the alleged 2019 attack. But in the aftermath of the incident, investigators discovered that Smollett had orchestrated the attack, hiring brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo to stage the incident in an attempt to boost his profile and enhance his tough-guy image.
Police revealed that Smollett admitted to staging the hoax because he was dissatisfied with his $100,000-per-episode salary on Empire. The Empire actor was eventually convicted on five felony counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police about the fabricated attack.
In March 2022, Smollett was sentenced to five months in jail for orchestrating a fake hate crime, which the judge labeled a “disgraceful” scheme. He was also given 30 months probation, fined $25,000, and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago.
Smollett, however, served only five days of his sentence before being released pending an appeal. Last year, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Smollett’s conviction for fabricating the racist and homophobic attack in Chicago. The court ruled that Smollett’s Fifth Amendment rights were violated when a special prosecutor decided to try him after initial charges were dropped.
The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to overturn his conviction was based on former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s earlier choice to drop the 16 felony charges against him. This agreement allowed Smollett to avoid admitting any wrongdoing in exchange for 16 hours of community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bail.
The decision to drop charges against Jussie Smollett angered Chicago police, who called for Foxx’s resignation.
During an appearance on Kandi Buruss’ Speak on It podcast in October, Smollett said he thought his career was over after how things unfolded following the incident.
“Hell yeah. Absolutely. I was looking for other things to do,” he told Burruss, per Complex. “I’m just like, ‘Forget this.'”
“I don’t know. I’ll become a tap dancer or a teacher or a nanny, something — an au pair, a governess, you know. I don’t know. A stripper,” he continued. “You know, I got the moves.”
Despite his arrest and subsequent cut from Empire, Smollett has never publicly admitted to lying and continues to proclaim his innocence.
