The Jussie Smollett Case

• Feb. 21, 2019
• • 198

CHICAGO Jussie Smollett, upset by his salary and seeking publicity, staged a fake assault on himself a week after writing himself a threatening letter, the Chicago police said Thursday after the "Empire actor surrendered to face a charge of filing a false police report.

Eddie T. Johnson, the visibly angry Chicago police superintendent, said Mr. Smollett had taken advantage of the pain and anger of racism, draining resources that could have been used to investigate other crimes for which people were actually suffering.

"I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention, he said at a news conference in Chicago.

The superintendent seemed particularly upset by the fact that Mr. Smollett, he said, had arranged a fake assault that featured a noose hung around his neck. The police say the staged assault was carried out by two brothers to whom the actor had paid $3,500.

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"Why would anyone especially an African-American man use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? he asked. "How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile?

A representative for Mr. Smollett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The actor has maintained that he did not do anything wrong.

The attack was reported to have occurred on Jan. 29. Mr. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, told the police that at roughly 2 a.m., two masked men attacked him on the 300 block of East Lower North Water Street in downtown Chicago. He said his assailants directed homophobic and racial slurs at him, put a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him. Mr. Smollett said the assault occurred after he went to a Subway to pick up food. When the police arrived at Mr. Smollett's apartment, he was still wearing the rope.

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Mr. Smollett also told the police that as the attack occurred, he was on the phone with his manager, Brandon Z. Moore, who later corroborated the phone call to Variety. The actor was initially hesitant to inform the police because of his high-profile status, according to law enforcement. It was his friend, the choreographer Frank Gatson, who initially made the call.

But a team of investigators, looking at the case as a possible hate crime, could not find evidence to match Mr. Smollett's story. The attack was not visible on surveillance cameras and there were no witnesses.

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The report of Mr. Smollett's being attacked spread quickly and a national outpouring of support quickly followed. Multiple 2020 Democratic presidential candidates weighed in to condemn Mr. Smollett's purported assailants, as did President Trump, who called the incident "horrible, and several advocacy groups offered aid.

In the days after Mr. Smollett reported his attack, the police released a surveillance image of two men thought to be potential persons of interest. The actor would later say in an interview broadcast on "Good Morning America that he was convinced that these two were the men that attacked him.

On Feb. 13, the police detained Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, two brothers and associates of Mr. Smollett's, believing them to be the men in the images. Their home was raided by law enforcement. Through their lawyer, the brothers initially said they didn't know why they were of interest to the police, but investigators changed their status from persons of interest to potential suspects publicly. But the story took another twist: The brothers told the police that they had been paid by Mr. Smollett to stage the attack, and detectives released them without charges.

Skepticism over the story existed from the beginning particularly from conservative commentators who found Mr. Smollett's story implausible because of the lack of evidence. Outwardly, the police repeatedly said they were treating Mr. Smollett as a victim and that they had no reason to doubt his story. Mr. Smollett acknowledged the suspicion in some corners in his first public statement about the incident, which came on Feb. 1, when he said through his publicist: "I am working with authorities and have been 100 percent factual and consistent on every level. Despite my frustrations and deep concern with certain inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been spread, I still believe that justice will be served.

In the "Good Morning America interview, which was broadcast on Feb. 14, Mr. Smollett said to Robin Roberts, "It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me much more.

Even so, the Chicago Police Department was still investigating the case as a possible hate crime until late last week, when, Superintendent Johnson said, the police began considering Mr. Smollett as possibly culpable. Mr. Smollett was charged on Wednesday.

Chicago Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson, who is African-American himself, said Mr. Smollett had taken advantage of the pain and anger of racism, draining resources that could have been used to investigate other crimes for which people were actually suffering.

"I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention " he said at a news conference in Chicago.

The superintendent seemed particularly upset by the fact that Mr. Smollett had arranged a fake assault that featured a noose hung around his neck. The police say the staged assault was carried out by two brothers to whom the actor had paid $3,500.

"Why would anyone especially an African-American man use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? " he asked. "How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile? "