‘Charlatan’ Empire star jailed for faking hate crime attack

THE American actor Jussie Smollett was denounced by a judge as a “shameful charlatan” as he was jailed for five months for lying about being the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.

The 39-year-old African-american was found guilty in December of “planning” the fake assault by paying two Nigerian brothers, $3,500 (£2,600), and of lying to police in his depositions.

“You really crave the attention and you wanted to get the attention,” Chicago Judge James Linn told the former Empire star as he read out the sentence.

He said the actor had a streak that was “profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic.” Judge Linn said: “This was premeditated to the extreme...

“You’ve destroyed your life as you knew it,” adding that “you did damage to real hate crime victims”.

He said Smollett was “just a charlatan, pretending to be a victim of a hate crime”. He will have to serve the first 150 days of his sentence in prison as part of a total of 30 months on probation. He must also repay $120,106 to the Chicago Police for investigation costs.

“I’m innocent, I did not do this,” Smollet said as the sentence was delivered. “I’m not suicidal. If something happens when I’m in there [in jail], I did not do it to myself,” he added, before leaving the courtroom with a raised fist.

Smollett’s lawyers and family had begged the judge for leniency and asked for an alternative to prison, or for a suspended sentence.

He said he was attacked in the middle of the night on Jan 29, 2019 in a Chicago street by two masked men who he said were supporters of then president Donald Trump. He told police they made racist and homophobic slurs against him and put a noose around his neck.

Prosecutors accused Smollett of hiring two acquaintances, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, to stage the attack while invoking Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, after the actor had received hate mail which he felt was not taken seriously by his employers.