'If I had done something like this, it would mean that I stuck my fist in the pain of black African Americans in this country for over 400 years.' And I don't think that's really questionable,' Smollett said in the episode last week. 'If I had done this, I'd be a piece of s***. Smollett said on the show that his moral principles as a black gay man made him incapable of orchestrating the hoax. Jussie recently doubled down on his claims in an interview with Sway's SiriusXM show.
ITUNES CHARTS FREE
He has been free ever since, and has recently doubled down on his claims in an interview with Sway's SiriusXM show 'You wanted to get the attention, and you were so invested in issues of social justice, and you knew this was a sore spot for everybody in this country.'īut in March, an Illinois Appellate Court ordered a stay on Smollett's jail term and required him to post a personal recognizance bond of $150,000. 'You've destroyed your life as you knew it. Linn accused Smollett at the time of 'throwing a national pity party for yourself.' 'You've turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans,' he said, according to the Washington Post.
ITUNES CHARTS TRIAL
Soon after, Smollett was once again indicted, and a trial ensued.Įventually, Cook County Judge James Linn ordered the actor to pay more than $120,000 to the city of Chicago, plus a $25,000 fine, and to serve 30 months of probation and 150 days in jail. Months later, Judge Michael Toomin appointed Dan Webb as a special prosecutor in the case, asking him to investigate Foxx's handling of the case and deciding whether Smollett should be convicted even further. Smollett's conviction in December came nearly one year after Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx unexpectedly dismissed Smollett's charges in March 2019. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight from the red carpet of last month's BET Awards, Smollett said he 'never thought of myself as working my way back' Smollett later claimed that in the days before the stunt, when prosecutors claimed he and the brothers were rehearsing the attack, they were actually getting together to smoke marijuana. Over the course of their investigation, Chicago police found that the two men Smollett accused of assaulting him were Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, who are black.Īnd in court, the brothers told the jury Smollett hired them to fake the attack because he wanted to boost his celebrity profile. Hit-maker: He also shared a screengrab of the track coming in at number 17 in all genresĪccording to his account of the attack, the assailants threw a noose around his neck and poured chemicals on him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs and expressing support for then-President Donald Trump.īut Chicago cops almost immediately had questions about his story, pointing to the fact that he kept a noose around his neck as they questioned him and positing that he staged the attack out of fear he was going to be written off the show.