Jussie got jail.
On Thursday, a Chicago judge sentenced actor Jussie Smollett, who is black and gay, to five months in the Cook County jail and 30 months of felony probation for lying to police about being the victim of a racially motivated hate crime, allegedly committed by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Smollett, seen most recently on the Fox show “Empire,” also was ordered to pay restitution of $120,106 and a $25,000 fine, according to the Post Millennial.
In pronouncing the sentence, Judge James Linn lowered the boom on Smollett.
He said Smollett’s hypocrisy by claiming to be a victim was “astounding.” He shamed the actor for publicly expressing his concern about social justice issues while also ripping off “some scabs” and the “healing wounds” of what is “a sore spot for everybody in this country.”
The judge dismissed claims that Smollett, who was reportedly paid $2 million a year for his work on “Empire,” was motivated by money.
Rather, Linn maintained that he craved attention and wanted to be the guest of honor at a “national pity party.”
“Let me tell you, Mr. Smollett, I know that there is nothing that I will do here today that can come close to the damage you’ve already done to your own life. You’ve turned your life upside down here, misconduct and shenanigans. You’ve destroyed your life as you knew it. And there’s nothing that any sentencing judge could do to you that can compare to the damage you’ve already caused yourself,” Linn told Smollett, the Post Millennial reported.
“For you now to sit here convicted of hoaxing hate crimes, racial hate crimes, and homophobic hate crimes, that hypocrisy is just astounding,” Linn added.
“You knew this was a country that was slowly trying to heal past injustices and current injustices and trying to make a better future for each other and it was a hard road. And you took some scabs off and the healing wounds and rip them apart, for one reason you want to make yourself more famous in for a while, it worked.”
“Everybody was talking about you, the lights are on you. You were actually throwing a national pity party for yourself. Why would you do such thing?” Linn continued.
“I acknowledged there are wonderful sides to you. They’re very giving and charitable and loving sides to you. But you have another side of you that is profoundly arrogant and selfish, selfish and narcissistic as the only thing that can be concluded, and that bad side of you came out during the course of all these events.”
Continuing, Judge Linn added, “You’ve been lying and lying and lying about this case, and that’s why you’re here today. … Those were the crimes you’re convicted of, not the shenanigans out there but the lying about it, making it up, and that’s why we’re here now.”
“Turns out that you’re not a victim of a hate crime. You’re not a victim of racial hate crime. You’re not a victim of a homophobic hate crime. You’re just a charlatan, pretending to be a victim of a hate crime,” Linn said.
“Your very name has become an adverb for lying. And I cannot imagine what could be worse than that. People talk about situations where somebody is lying and trying to manipulate and maneuver his story and your name comes up. So pulling a Jussie, something like that. that’s awful,” the judge added.
Once his sentence was read, Smollett shouted, “I am not suicidal. I am not suicidal. I am innocent. I am not suicidal.”
“If I did this, that means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community,” he continued, according to a video of Smollett’s reaction posted by the Post Millennial.
“Your Honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I did not do this and I am not suicidal. If anything happens to me when I go in there. I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that,” Smollet continued.
“I respect you, Your Honor. I respect your decision. But jail time,” he said, shaking his head without finishing that sentence. “I am not suicidal.”
As The Free Press reported in December, Smollett faced up to 15 years in prison after a jury convicted him on five of six counts of disorderly conduct, related to his phony claims of being a hate crime victim.
Smollett asserted that a pair of MAGA-clad white Trump supporters attacked him with fists, bleach, and a noose on the deserted, early morning streets of Chicago on a frigid night in January 2019. Smollett claimed the alleged attackers told him his neighborhood was “MAGA country” as they assaulted him.
Smollett was hailed by the left, including by now-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris proclaimed at the time that Smollett was the victim of a “modern-day lynching.”
But Chicago police kept quietly investigating until the actor’s claims unraveled.
The key to that was when the supposed bullies, a pair of brothers from Nigeria, Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo, flipped on Smollett. They told authorities he had paid them to carry out the attack, bought supplies for them, and even rehearsed the incident.
Before sentencing, the Post Millennial reported, Smollett’s lawyers produced an 83-page motion, outlining why he did not get a fair trial. That was partly because of trial “errors,” but also because the jury was not comprised of the actor’s “peers.” They demanded a new trial.
Judge Linn rejected that request.
“I’ve never had a case that has been pled as exhaustively as this one,” Linn said in court.
“I’m going to stand by my findings and rulings. I do believe at the end of the day that Mr. Smollett received a fair trial, that he was proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by the jury based on the evidence that was presented, that there was nothing unconstitutional about these proceedings. His motion for post trial relief was respectfully denied.”
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Looks like Aunt Bunny’s kids.