Jussie Smollett found guilty of reporting false hate crimes

A verdict has been reached in the Jussie Smollett trial.

On Thursday (December 9), a jury in Chicago found the former “Empire” actor guilty of five disorderly conduct for filing a false police report on January 29, 2019 alleging he was a victim of a hate crime been.

Smollett was also acquitted on a charge of misconduct. The twelve-person jury deliberated over nine hours before they could make a judgment.

Smollett claimed he was attacked by two men who physically assaulted him and used racist and homophobic slurs, poured chemicals on him and tied a rope around his neck while wearing MAGA hats in support of Donald Trump.

In his testimony, Smollett said he never lied to the police and denied orchestrating the attack on himself.

Smollett received widespread support after the first report. But things took a turn when a Chicago police investigation found the actor’s story a hoax and arrested two Nigerian brothers, Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo, in connection with the alleged crime.

Prosecutors argued that Smollett made false reports to police after paying the brothers to carry out the staged attack against him in order to get benevolent media coverage.

Smollett faces up to three years in prison and a $ 25,000 fine for grade 4 crimes. He has a clean criminal record, so it’s unlikely he will ever be behind bars.