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'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett charged with faking racist attack

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By Dan Whitcomb and Gina Cherelus

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Smollett, 36, last month told police in Chicago that two men shouting racist and homophobic slurs had accosted him on the street and put a rope around his neck. Smollett, an openly gay African-American man, also plays a gay man on the show.

The racist Smollett originally said he had been attacked by two white men who had shouted racist and homophobic slurs. As it turns out, Smollett had hired two black men to help him stage this alleged attack, and then Smollett filed a false police report. A grand jury will now hear the evidence of this case, and they will then decide if there is sufficient evidence to hold Smollett over for trial. The Chicago police spent a lot of time, and money, investigating a crime that never occurred. What the CPD did find is that Smollett has committed a Class 4 felony.

11 ( +16 / -5 )

Let’s see how the liberals handle this. This guy should never work in TV again, how he gets blacklisted and pays a steep fine if he is really guilty.

10 ( +18 / -8 )

Whatever his twisted motives, Smollett has just made the next real attack against some gay man, an out lesbian, a transperson, a teenager struggling with issues of sexual identity—automatically not credible. He’s wrecked his career, done great harm, and given a green light to some very sick people out there now feeling empowered to ‘teach gays a lesson.’ I wish this had not happened.

This will do nothing but provide ammo to the absolute worst kind of anti-LGBT advocates.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

“Let’s see how the liberals handle this.”

Cory Booker, K. Harris & Maxine Waters are feeling pretty stupid right now.

5 ( +13 / -8 )

Cory Booker, K. Harris & Maxine Waters are feeling pretty stupid right now

They we’re stupid from the beginning to rush to judgement and jumping on his side blindly without knowing all the facts first.

4 ( +12 / -8 )

He doesn’t get raided at 6am by the FBI? Why does he get to negotiate his surrender whenever he feels like it?

5 ( +12 / -7 )

They support him stillfor a felony but cancelled Roseanne’s show in one day. Even the show seems to think he will be fine to continue acting. So I guess prison is out of the question already.

Earlier in the day, the studio said: "Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show."

4 ( +11 / -7 )

Jussie Smollett is a racist of the worst kind.

11 ( +17 / -6 )

Smollett committed a vicious, deliberate hate crime.

13 ( +19 / -6 )

Whatever his twisted motives, Smollett has just made the next real attack against some gay man, an out lesbian, a transperson, a teenager struggling with issues of sexual identity—automatically not credible. 

The media helped with this. Perhaps journalists should actually do some work so this sort of thing doesn't happen again. They clearly have a narrative that they're trying to push & when something comes along that fits their narrative they can't wait to make it news. Then they find themselves wrong... again.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

Throw the book at this guy if he staged that situation. No place for this in any society.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

As I pointed out previously, this is a godsend for the bigots out there, who are rejoicing in the apparent idiocy of this narcisist who is doing race relations untold harm by his irresponsible actions.

-6 ( +7 / -13 )

@article

”Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show."

Professional actor. He’s just got the role of his life. He’d better get that “Prison Break” tatoo ASAP.

@Wc62six

Cory Booker, K. Harris & Maxine Waters are feeling pretty stupid right now.

I doubt they feel stupid. They are still cool in their crowd. All tweets deleted. All forgotten. Next question?

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The Trump Curse strikes again. Another case of TDS: Too Damn Stupid.

-2 ( +8 / -10 )

This is not the first time that a "Trump supporter attacked me" event has been fabricated:

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/teen-lied-anti-muslim-attack-subway-pleads-guilty-article-1.3481401?fbclid=IwAR1b8SJS-X-6GQ9XDLYUThORuOU2ILnXBd8ZwsyGmU-9NP9dW3QwAStJTrQ

7 ( +11 / -4 )

This is not the first time that a "Trump supporter attacked me" event has been fabricated

Doesn't negate all those who have suffered because of Trump's rhetoric and advocation of violence.

And he sure has called for violence plenty of times.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

Sheer stupidity.

He deserves what is coming.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

What an idiot. Super-irresponsible. Should be charged with wasting police time, at least.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Chicago police say the charge of filing a false police report carries a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison.

There is also the issue of lying to the FBI in relation to the mail threats which appear to be part of the hoax. I'm no expert on this but my understanding is that this will be the more serious charge (if it comes) since it's difficult to avoid a custodial sentence when it comes to federal crimes.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@Toasted Heretic, “this is a godsend for the bigots.”

Jussie Smollet is the bigot.

10 ( +16 / -6 )

A significant number of people in the West, perhaps a majority, feel that the grievances of certain groups today are exaggerated, if not non-existent. They have this case to point to as proof.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Anonymous,

Im reminded of the shower scene in Escape from Alkatrazz.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

As I pointed out previously, this is a godsend for the bigots out there, who are rejoicing in the apparent idiocy of this narcisist who is doing race relations untold harm by his irresponsible actions.

Really? This is what you choose to focus on? The “bigots out there?” How about the bigot in this article, Jussie Smollett?

Pointing our that people like him are liars, or that they are overreacting, and when something like this happens, saying “Ah HAH! I knew it!’ does not make anyone a bigot. Making false claims of hate crimes against someone of another race makes you a bigot. Jussie Smollett is a bigoted heterophobe.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Doesn't negate all those who have suffered because of Trump's rhetoric and advocation of violence.

Examples?

The media hate Trump. So if there were really so many people suffering due to Trump's rhetoric, why aren't we seeing round-the-clock coverage of it on CNN and elsewhere?

The truth is, Trump's words have hurt no one.

And if he truly did advocate violence, that would be a crime. It would be investigated by the FBI, and it would lead his political opponents in Congress to call for his impeachment.

Who in Congress is calling for his impeachment due to his advocacy of violence? Again, remember, such behavior is a crime.

Yet no one is saying he should be impeached for it. That's probably because he is innocent of it. Which means your claim is baseless.

You don't seem terribly concerned about this latest example of a hate-crime hoax blamed on Trump's supporters.

Please stop the "yeah, but well" thinking. Smollett was wrong, period. All of the other people who have hoaxed similar "attacks by Trump supporters" were wrong, period.

So please stop excusing and minimizing the constant portrayals -- to the point of staging fake "hate crimes" -- of political opponents as violent racists.

That sort of demonizing of political opponents is what the Nazis and the Communists used to do.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Well he didnt kill anyone at least like KKK/Trump supporter dyllan roof. If anti Trump people are this bad then it's a piece of cake compared to Trump terrorists

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Fox Television says Smollett "continues to be a consummate professional on set,"

Phew, what a relief...

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Yeah I know, right! His character on the show hasn’t manufactured any felony level fake racial hoaxes targeting Trump supporters whatsoever!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

He doesn’t get raided at 6am by the FBI? Why does he get to negotiate his surrender whenever he feels like it?

He has no incriminating documents to shred so no warrant was needed.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Doesn't negate all those who have suffered because of Trump's rhetoric and advocation of violence.

And he sure has called for violence plenty of times.

Oh, stop! This has absolutely nothing to do with Trump, absolutely nothing! It has everything to do with this guy trying to stoke the flames of division and racism, he knew what he was doing and he wanted to cause a serious conflict between the races. If the guy doesn’t like the president, he has every right to feel the way he does, but he could do it in a more productive and constructive way he could’ve had a protest or Townhall, he didn’t have to do something as stupid as this and the sad thing is, the guy has some talent and now because for whatever reason and whatever is inside him, he felt he needed to lie. Trump never told Smollett to make himself look like a fool.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Smollett is clearly in the wrong and people be like “b..but Trump!”

insert confused wth black guy meme here

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Jussie was committing his hate crime

There are reports that Jussie has participated in terrorizing the white evangelical mega church of Robert Jeffress. Is this really true? Is the FBI on the case? If not that means the deep state is preventing Jussie from being accused of terrorist acts with the BLM.

“The Bible teaches that the primary responsibility of government is to maintain order and keep its citizens safe, and there’s nothing wrong with using a wall to do that,”

(Robert Jeffress - Evangelical leader for white people and TrumpNRAWeThePeople supporter)

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

This isn’t about Trump (as much as Trump likely wants it to be)

Trump thinks everything is about Trump. He is always takes the bite on SNL when other president didn't care. Trump spends more time in "executive time" seeing what other people think of him rather than his job. But I heard black unemployment is down according to his white followers which means in their eyes he's the best president ever.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

CrazyJoe

I totally disagree with your whole idea, it has nothing what so ever to do with anything you've written. The man is a leftist idiot, probably infected with the Trump Derangement syndrome no doubt about it. The Main Stream has been pushing this disease for over 2 years now, at first some bought into it, now some are actually flipping out over it, the guy is totally infected with the disease. The case has nothing to do with Mega hats, or racism, or homophobic radicals are anything else, it has to do with one low life lying scum bag that should go to jail. I doubt he will go to jail, and this kind of garbage will no doubt continue because of that very reason. Free speech is one thing, but a Mega Hoax is quite another, in fact it is Jussie himself that now looks to be a bigoted racist scum, which more and more seems to be typical of the far left, they never look into the mirror, but I'm very sure the Main Stream will go out of its way to justify part of this, because the Western Press is without a doubt a major part of this problem.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The second comment on this thread is

Let’s see how the liberals handle this.

I don’t see how making up a crime and playing the victim card is either a liberal or a conservative trait. It’s something that unhinged people do to get attention or to compensate for a lack of self-esteem. Anybody who makes up a crisis against his/her person that doesn’t exist deserves to be ignored. Plain and simple.

Smollett has now entered this club. He joins other far more illustrious members who claim harassment or persecution as a way to get ahead.

Anyone who automatically stood by Smollett’s claim simply on the basis of his political affiliation is a moron. Ditto for those on other sides.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The man is a leftist idiot

I'd rather deal with this leftist idiot than with someone like the Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc. Jussie is a leftist idiot? So what? Did Jussie hurt anyone except himself? Compared to Trump supporters Dylan Roof or Cesar Sayoc Jussie is an angel.

Go Trump!! White Evangelical power.

According to the white evangelical Trump supporters black unemployment is down which in their eyes means he's the best president since Lincoln (Trump said this)

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

.Lock him up. Idiots like this do great damage to our cause. And you have to he a complete idiot to think you can get away with a hoax in this day and age.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I'm gonna say the guy's a jerk and needs to go away... along with his co-conspirators. But liberalism is not to be blamed for this. There are foolish people on both sides of the political spectrum. The fact that some people believed him in the first place is indicative of what people expect from the extreme right. If the left have any responsibility the right are equally responsible for this.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

So if a white guy said he was attacked by two black guys, but was staged, would be still have a show to go back to as well? If not, hypocrisy, racism...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Well at least his lawyers sat he gets a presumption of innocence due to the case having leaked information both true and false during the investigation.

Oh wait....do we know anyone else like that who was not given a presumption of innocence and has been treated as guilty instead for political reasons?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

If he's guilty, he should go to jail for lying a false crime/police report

But let's not rush to judgement again without knowing all the facts first, in court

(Otherwise, people didn't learn making the same mistake a 2nd time)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

uh no straight white males and Trump supporters were wrongly accused here. Not equally responsible for anything. This fraud was perpetrated upon us with no involvement from us and cannot be justified whatsoever.

Oh are there? Both sides you say....? So an entire side isn’t responsible for what one member of their side does? Interesting.

There are foolish people on both sides of the political spectrum

1 ( +3 / -2 )

This is what happens when you proclaim you are for diversity and love but in truth you are really about resistance and hate.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

uh no straight white males and Trump supporters were wrongly accused here. Not equally responsible for anything. This fraud was perpetrated upon us with no involvement from us and cannot be justified whatsoever.

The hatred born and bred from both the extreme right AND the extreme left is what is responsible for this.

Oh are there? Both sides you say....? So an entire side isn’t responsible for what one member of their side does? Interesting.

I detect a hint of sarcasm there. Either you're saying I'm wrong and you'll accept, along with all other conservatives, the responsibility for the lies of Manafort and Cohen... or you're saying I'm right and will stop trying to tar all liberals with the same brush. I agree... It is interesting.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

twisted logic

Really? Then it's true that jussie is as bad as Dylan roof? TrumpNRAWeThePeopleWhiteEvangelicalJesus people are so loyal to Trump that they think that jussie is worse than dyllan roof. They think that jussie is worse than a mass murderer

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The big story from this incident has nothing to do with Smollett: It is about the continuing decline in the professionalism, accuracy, and objectivity of the media. They are biased, they are bold about it, and they couldn't care less that we know it. A nation needs a competent, independent, and objective media: We no longer have it, and it's a very bad sign for America.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Yes.

Proof I'm right. But I respect your honesty. Trump people think that Dylann Roof and Cesar Sayoc are better people than Jussie. Jussie did not murder anyone. But they think mass murders are good people as long as they are Trump believers. Proof I'm right but again thanks for being an honest Trump supporter. If Trump shot someone in the middle of the street his supporters would still support him and they would not want him to be arrested. They would follow Trump off a cliif like Jim Jones and the above Yes is proof. Trump is a cult leader.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Smollet is an idiot on at least three levels. I hope he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

To send a clear message.

Trumpies will use this until the 2020 election to 'prove' their alternative reality. Y'know the one: the only racism in America is that against white people...

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

This type of hoax is the kind of thing you get when the demand for racist hate exceeds the supply.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Yes

Yes, see above for confirmation. Trump voters will follow Trump off a cliff. It is a modern day Jim Jones situation.

but definitely [follow Trump off a 50-ft] a wall.

Yes, they would follow Trump off Trump's 50ft x 2,000 wall if Trump told them to do that. You know Trump wants to build a 50ft x 2000 foot wall. It's brainwash. I respect your loyalty, and shows that Trump is the modern-day Jim Jones. They will loyally drink cyanide laced punch like Jim Jones followers did.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Once again, as with the Covington Catholic Story, the fake news media blows it big time. One day they may get it right.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Not the first fake hate crime, won't be the last. At least this one is so high profile that the media can't ignore it.

Unfortunately, idiots like this make real victims of hate crimes suffer.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

10 years in prison will teach him to not stage racist attacks and smear Trump supporters.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Sad commentary on American society that his story was automatically believed. Even sadder commentary on American liberals and the American left that they did not think about the story as first reported before blowing off.

I grew up in the Chicago area. I know what it is like in the dead of winter at 0200. Hell's bells. It's pretty damn cold even during the daytime. The idea that two guys with a bottle of bleach and a noose are out and about at 0200 when its bloody cold and they know Jussie has the munchies and has gone out to Subway should have raised questions from the very beginning.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

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