Jussie Smollett to be sentenced TODAY for lying to police about hoax race hate attack

Jussie Smollett has arrived at court to be sentenced for lying to police about the 2019 race hate attack he claims he was a victim was, and faces up to three years behind bars.  

Smollett claimed that on January 29, 2019, he was attacked by two white thugs wearing red hats who called him a ‘f****t’ and the N-word at around 2am as he walked home from collecting a sandwich from Subway. 

He was initially hesitant to talk to police about it, refused to hand over his cell phone for weeks and then launched his narrative, going on Good Morning America and performing music shows where he spoke proudly of ‘fighting back’ as a black gay man in America. 

At trial, a jury ruled that none of it was true. 

Smollett had in fact hired his two black friends, Abel and Ola Osundairo – a pair of brothers with Nigerian heritage- to stage the attack as a way of raising his celebrity profile. 

Prosecutors told how he never intended for the stunt to be reported to police and that he simply wanted to get attention and possibly a raise from Empire, the show he was acting in. 

Smollett maintained his innocence and still does. He will attend court today with his 92-year-old grandmother, Molly, who will also ask the judge to show him mercy in sentencing.  

His older brother Joel will also speak, as will musical director Rich Daniels, a friend who says he ‘loves Jussie like a brother’, and Sharon Gelman, Former Executive Director, Artists for a New South Africa. 

Smollett’s team says the judge has received 80 letters in support of him, asking for an alternative sentence. 

They say that the letters point out how Smollett has reason to fear for his safety in prison as a ‘gay, black Jewish man’.  

The long legal saga finally draws to a close today, more than three years after it began. 

Since the beginning, the case against Smollett has ignited debate and enraged many in the worlds of showbiz, politics and civil rights. 

Smollett was arrested in February 2019, then the charges against him were suddenly dropped after a suspicious investigation by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office, who Smollett had been in touch with in the early days of the case. 

A special prosecutor brought fresh charged against him.  

Before sentencing on Thursday, his legal team submitted letters to the judge from black rights organizations asking for leniency. 

One was written by the president of the NAACP who claimed Smollett had been subjected to an unfair amount of scrutiny and attention. 

‘It would be an understatement to say that an inordinate amount of attention has been given to Mr. Smollett’s case. 

‘This case involves no drugs, no theft, no sex, no property damage, and no physical injury to anyone other than the defendant. 

‘Despite the attention paid to it by the media, at its heart, this case involves a low-level, non-violent offense. 

‘We urge the Court to keep this truth in mind when sentencing Mr. Smollet,’ Derrick Johnson wrote. 

Another letter was submitted by Black Lives Matter-Grassroots Director Melina Abdullah. 

‘Black Lives Matter stands in strong support of an alternative-to-incarceration sentence for Jussie Smollett,’ their letter read.

It details all of the financial contributions Smollett has made to civil rights organizations and his commitment to the community.  

The brothers testified at trial how Smollett paid them to carry out the attack, how he rehearsed it with them and how they came to know him beforehand.  

Smollett’s defense was that they were lying throughout. 

His attorney offered several motives for the lying. Smollett himself claimed he and Abel Osundairo had visited bathhouses together where they ‘made out’. 

Abel said that never happened, but that neither he nor his brother were homophobic – as Smollett’s attorneys had suggested. 

They showed the jury photos of them handing out condoms at a Pride parade to prove they had no prejudice against gay men. 

The brothers said they did not want to necessarily harm Smollett, but that they wanted to tell the truth. 

Smollett’s lies enraged Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson, who was in charge of the force at the time but is not anymore, and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.