I think they will charge these guys with the crime, if they haven’t already and then give them leniency if they confess and turn on smollett. If so I bet they will.
Apparently they’ve charged the two with assault/battery. If the whole thing was a staged hoax then there may be no need for leniency at all. Their best defense would be to tell the truth (they can’t be charged with assault if the “victim” was complicit), and since they weren’t the ones who filed the police report they probably wouldn’t be charged with anything related to the hoax.
Faking a hate crime IS a hate crime.
Jussi and his Nigerian conspirators should all be prosecuted and put behind bars.