Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett enters the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Dec. 9, 2021, in Chicago where he was found guilty on five of six disorderly conduct charges. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Here in Chicago, let us never speak of Jussie Smollett again.
What a ridiculous drama. What an insult.
A Cook County jury late Thursday convicted the former “Empire” star of concocting a fake hate crime against himself, bringing an end — hopefully — to a torturous celebrity saga that wasted an absurd amount of police time in a city that doesn’t need such distractions.
From the start, Smollett’s story of being attacked in a fancy and diverse Chicago neighborhood by supporters of then-President Donald Trump who he claimed yelled something about “MAGA country” and put a noose around his neck, sounded like a poorly written scene from a script Hollywood wouldn’t touch.
But people jumped all over it, buying Smollett’s version of events long before the police could conduct a thorough investigation. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx managed to bungle things up early by exchanging texts with a relative of Smollett’s, and everything got weirder from there. The police handled the investigation admirably, properly treating Smollett as a victim right up until the facts began to suggest he was a suspect. The evidence the police turned up seemed damning, then they charged the actor, then Foxx’s office dropped all the charges with some kind of watered-down agreement made behind closed doors.
It left reasonable Chicagoans saying: “What in the heck happened here? Either he was attacked, in which case the attackers should be brought to justice, or he made the whole thing up, in which case he should face consequences.”
Smollett maintained his innocence and did what actors do: pretend. The police stuck by their investigation, and even the lead prosecutor, Joseph Magats, said his office stood behind the decision to charge Smollett.
Huh? Like I said, ridiculous. This whole mess has been ridiculous.
Thanks goodness for special prosecutor Dan Webb, who was brought in to untangle the mess Foxx and company had made. He said in his closing arguments Wednesday that what Smollett did was “just plain wrong. ”
Amen to that. Real hate crimes happen far too often in this country. To fake one as a means of elevating your celebrity status, or whatever motivated Smollett to follow this path, is beyond disgusting.
What this actor did undoubtedly harmed people who have since filed claims over real attacks. How could it not? How could anyone hear about a reported hate crime and not think of the high-profile debacle that went down here and captured the nation’s attention? People are bound to think, “Could this be another Smollett situation?”
That’s a disgrace. Smollett should be ashamed of what he did, but like a true method actor, I don’t expect he’ll break character.
The jury found him guilty on five of six counts of disorderly conduct related to filing a false police report. He could technically face up to three years in prison, but he’ll likely wind up with probation.
I don’t much care about the punishment. I care about the truth. Finally! The truth!
The jury found the truth is Smollett paid a couple guys to lightly rough him up and help him create a scene in which he could pretend he was victimized because of his race and sexuality. People are actually victimized for those reasons every day in this country, and Smollett’s lies made those people’s lives worse. It’s selfishness unbound.
This was a maddening case, and it showed the worst of our jump-to-conclusions culture in action.
With Thursday’s verdict, Jussie Smollett will receive his punishment.
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