Well, it finally fell apart. Jussie Smollett, who started on the Fox series “Empire,” has turned himself in after being indicted for filing a false police report. Smollett alleged that on January 29, two white men wearing red hats punched him, poured bleach on him, and tied a rope around his neck. The liberal media couldn’t resist. They took it, packaged it, and peddled it as fact before all the facts were sorted out and they paid for it. The men who attacked Smollett were reportedly two Nigerian brothers, one of which was an extra on “Empire.” The other was Smollett’s former personal trainer. They were allegedly paid $3,500 to “attack” the actor, and even held rehearsals.
All of this because a racist letter sent [SEE UPDATE] to Smollett didn’t get enough media attention. Oh, and this letter was reportedly created by Smollett. This is insane, folks. And yet, it wasn’t just conservatives who were skeptical of this case. The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah admitted that the story doesn’t make sense. And an LA-based civil rights activist even called for his arrest days prior to Smollett turning himself in because he felt the actor lied about his hate crime. ABC Los Angeles has more:
Najee Ali, who is also the director of Project Islamic HOPE, said false claims make real incidents of racist attacks and homophobia easier to dismiss.
"It's a slap in the face. We have many members of the black community and the LGBTQ community who have been the victims of racism and hate crimes, so for Smollett to say that he was a victim...and we believe is a lie...certainly is an injustice to those true victims...," Ali said. "Jussie Smollett must be brought to justice for lying."
Ali said Smollett's story was given the benefit of the doubt at first, but over the last few days, the "campaign of lies continued to be unraveled."
And that day has come. Smollett’s mug shot was released by police this morning.
Press Briefing: Jussie Smollet is under arrest and in custody of detectives. At 9am at #ChicagoPolice Headquarters, Supt Eddie Johnson, Commander of Area Central Detectives Edward Wodnicki will brief reporters on the investigation prior to the defendants appearance in court. pic.twitter.com/9PSv8Ojec2
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) February 21, 2019
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NEW: Jussie Smollett
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) February 21, 2019
mugshot & booking info.
c/o @Chicago_Police @MarissaBaileyTV pic.twitter.com/2h81ZMIcpY
UPDATE: As Cortney wrote, this might have all been because of Smollett's unhappiness with his salary on "Empire."
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