He may eventually face Federal charges for the threatening letter. Crimes committed through the Post Office can be quite serious.
We’re not there yet. It’ll be interesting to see how this story develops. It’s hard to say what a Fed prosecutor may eventually decide.
People need to think long and hard before doing something like this. They don’t realize what the consequences can be.
Recent article. The FBI is already involved.
Geez, talk about amateurs. These men kept the magazines they used?
Jussie Smollett appeared in the play “Take Me Out”
You know, the play about a biracial, gay sports star who endures attacks similar to the one he reported to police just HOURS before his ‘assault.’
ETA: Anyone else having flashbacks of Tawana Brawley?
Smollett’s role is being substantially reduced in Empire. He’s being written out of scenes.
The fall out is starting. He needs to tell the full and truthful story ASAP and show some genuine remorse. Imho, or this case will just get worse.
To be honest his career is over either way, and the only thing he should be worried about are the legal consequences. Not confessing to the crime is probably his best move.
Tawana Brawley lied because she was afraid of her step dad and thought he would beat her. I don’t think she ever intended for her case to get publicity.
This is much worse, Smollett is lying for personal aggrandizement and to hurt people he hates.
In the Brawley case there were actual people named. Their lives were made into a living hell. I think that was worse.
Nope. The media spokesperson was Anne Kavanagh.
Anne Kavanagh is Partner, Senior Media Advisor at Media Pros 24/7, a boutique consulting firm. Anne is also an advisory board member at DePaul University’s College of Communications and teaches investigative journalism there as an adjunct instructor.
Is it a Federal crime to mail threatening letters to yourself? I’m sure the false reporting is but probably a lesser offense than the threats.
Well, I sit corrected. I wonder how large Smollett’s legal bills are. He has to realize his career is pretty much over, at least for a while.
Foxx has apparently recused herself from the case:
First of all, Smollett should do his homework better if he wants to pull off a hoax. Chicago is hardly a hotbed of MAGA activity. Trump supporters round these parts stick out about as much as a palm tree on Lake Shore Drive.
Secondly, even if it is a hoax, I doubt he will ever believe that he did anything wrong. I suspect he will forever see himself as the true victim for having the balls to stand up to the Evil Regime.
The difference is that Tawana Brawley was a 15 year old kid and Smollett is an adult. He deliberately set out to create a racially charged media event.
I can’t imagine how he’s going to salvage his reputation.
His incredible ego made him think that it was plausible that the typical MAGA-enthusiast would actually recognize him walking down a random street at night.
Either that or MAGA-enthusiasts have an incredible sense of gaydar to pick him out as a renowned gay activist.
I wonder that, too. I would be conserving cash right now if I were him. Unless being the future senior gay black affairs commentator at MSNBC or the Huffington Post is a well-paying career path, it’s hard to imagine how he can afford this kind of legal support.
It has now come out that in 2007 he pleaded no contest to a charge of providing false information to police. There is no further information as to what happened. I have a feeling because it dealt with a DWI that it may have been something like giving a false name at the scene.
Brawley was surrounded by adults (Sharpton, Maddox etc) Who deliberately set out to create a racially charged media event. It was much worse. Real people were falsely accused. The motivation of those adults was much worse and more damaging.
Isn’t this pretty much what happened in the current case: 3 adults set out to fabricate a racially charged media event ?
They are now seriously reducing the presence of his character which is in filming now. He is well and truly fucked.
I hated that my spidey sense came out when I heard this story. I work night shift so I’ve spent a lot of time out late at night in different parts of Chicago. This hate crime took place when the weather was about 10 degrees F and very few people would be out. If he’d gotten mugged for his phone and wallet, sure, I’d believe it. But an over the top racist attack in an area where more people wrote in Bernie Sanders than voted for Trump seems unlikely.
I hate Trump, but I also think that there IS a liberal hypocrisy in this country right now. What I mean is that had the race and political parties been reversed (e.g. a white actor fabricated an attack from men wearing “Change We Need” hats), he’d have been immediately fired.
The fact that this clown still has a job is wrong.