Trial of Jussie Smollett, accused of faking hate crime against himself, begins Monday

The criminal trial of Jussie Smollett began its jury selection on Monday, almost three years after the actor claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime in Chicago.  

Smollett, 39, has been charged with six counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports to the police. In Illinois, each charge is punishable by up to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine. The Associated Press reports that he will likely be given probation or community service over jailtime if found guilty.

This is the second time he has been charged for allegedly faking the attack. The first time was in February 2019, but the charges were dismissed a month later requiring only community service for Smollett in a controversial decision by Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney for Cook County. The current charges came after a review by a special prosecutor, whose findings led to a grand jury indicting him on the same charges in February 2020.

Smollett was an actor on the hit TV show Empire at the time, where he was lauded for his portrayal of a gay black musician trying to gain the approval of his ailing father Lucious, the CEO of Empire Records, a world-renown record company. Both Smollett and show co-creator Lee Daniels are gay African-Americans, and collaborated to create compelling, positive storylines for the show. Smollett was removed from the show's Season 5 finale in 2019 due to the assault controversy.

On January 29, 2019, Smollett claimed he was attacked outside his apartment by two masked men who tied a noose around his neck while yelling homophobic and racist slurs at him.

Smollett still had the noose around his neck when police arrived at his apartment. “I just wanted y’all to see it,” he told them.

Shortly after, Abimbola Osundairo, a Nigerian friend of Smollett’s who’d worked on Empire, came forward to admit Smollett had paid him and his brother Olabinjo $3,500 to stage the attack. Smollett denied it but was charged with disorderly conduct in February 2019.

In April 2019, the City of Chicago sued Smollett for $130,105.15, the cost of overtime law enforcement had put into investigating the alleged attack. That case has been stayed until the criminal case against Smollett concludes.