Posted on 02/17/2019 2:14:58 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Are we finally coming to the end of the Jussie Smollett “hate crime” story? I’ve mostly steered clear of this confusing tale except for some of the usual banter on Twitter, but the most recent developments seem to be sending the actor toward a very dark place. To be clear, we’re not at the point where anything is 100% confirmed, and if Smollett actually was attacked I want his assailants found and prosecuted. But according to the Chicago police, the investigation into his alleged assault has “shifted.” They’re still not being terribly specific, but there are plenty of hints to be found as to what they’re talking about. (Associated Press)
Chicago police said Saturday the investigation into the attack reported by Jussie Smollett has “shifted” due to information received from two brothers arrested in the case then released, and police want to interview the “Empire” actor again.
Chicago police had released the two Nigerian brothers without charges late Friday and said they were no longer suspects in the reported attack.
“We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in an emailed statement Saturday. “We’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview.”
The cops sounded pretty confident that they had identified the two men seen in various bits of video footage from the time of the supposed assault. The two Nigerians were later identified as being associates of Smollett, with one of them being a personal trainer he’d previously hired to help get him in shape for an acting role. They also don’t seem to fit the profile one might expect of typical “rednecks” in MAGA hats, to put it mildly.
For his part, the actor is still saying there’s “no truth” to the idea he might have played role in the attack, and he finds the suggestion offensive. And of course, he’s blaming Trump, as Karen pointed out yesterday. But details are leaking out and it’s now being alleged that not only did he put his buddies up to participating in a hoax hate crime, but he paid them thousands of dollars to do it. (NY Post)
Chicago police now believe “Empire” TV actor Jussie Smollett paid two pals to fake the attack that he has insisted was carried out by a pair of homophobic and racist strangers, according to a stunning new report.
The buddies — body-builder brothers from Nigeria — told cops they purchased the rope for the noose recovered from Smollett’s neck after the attack, Fox’s Chicago affiliate reported Saturday night, citing multiple Chicago law-enforcement sources. The two are cooperating with the probe, and have turned over to cops the Ace Hardware receipt for their purchase of the rope, Fox 32 reported.
Coming up with a receipt for the rope used to make the noose sounds like a pretty specific piece of information. Unless some new, startling evidence to the contrary turns up, it’s really looking as if Smollett faked the attack for reasons we don’t yet know.
So let’s say that’s what actually happened. If so, what becomes of this entire debacle? Smollett’s supporters in both Hollywood and the political circus should walk back all the accusations they hurled and their indignant statements of support for him, though most will likely go into radio silence mode on the subject.
But there’s more damage to clean up than the usual Twitter wars. The police invested resources into a lengthy investigation. And the actor has cast a shadow over not only his own career but the future success of the show he’s on. Who pays for all of that? Under Illinois law, filing a false police report in this fashion is just a Class A misdemeanor under the state’s disorderly conduct statutes. For a first offense, it brings a maximum fine of $10,000 and some community service, but jail time is unusual. Does that seem like sufficient justice for setting off a national media firestorm in this fashion?
I’m seeing some people suggest that the supposed death threat letter he received could be treated as a federal crime with more serious penalties. Sending death threats through the U.S. mail system is definitely a crime, but if he either sent it himself or had his friends do it, and all parties knew that it was a hoax, was there really a death threat sent? Seems to me that a competent attorney could get that charged kicked fairly easily.
He didn’t really defame anyone if the two alleged participants not only went along with it but were paid for their services. Making a generic accusation against “Trump-supporting rednecks” may be proven to be a total fabrication, but no specific person would be able to show damages. So is that it? He writes a check to the courts, maybe spends a couple of weekends picking up trash in a public park and everyone just gets on with their lives? That’s what it looks like to me, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion.
Not a bang but a clang.
The clang of the door on his jail cell.
Also, there is the federal legal angle since the hoax threat letter is reportedly being investigated by the FBI. Jussie probably sent it to himself, but can they prove anything? Who knows, but federal investigation and charges are at least a possibility.
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Here’s hoping he lied to the FBI about some points and the federal attorney chooses to prosecute.
He’ll get to be Kamala’s running mate.
I think the grand jury route will help cover up the connection with Jussie’s old community organizer.
Well we don’t know if the brothers had anything to do with the letter, I doubt it. That kind of hoax hate letter was probably concocted by Jussie alone in his apartment, why would he have needed to involve the brothers? The letter was reportedly done a week before. My guess is that first Jussie tried the hoax/threat letter, which got him some sympathies within the “Empire” cast but no public uproar. The public fuss came a week later when he tried the “MAGA attack” hoax, probably because he was frustrated that his first hoax was not getting enough attention.....
and/or he thought of the beat-down hoax as a useful follow up to the letter, since he was pretending that he was being menaced and stalked by rabid MAGA supporters.
Can anything be proved about the letter? I doubt it, because he would have opened and handled the letter before reporting it, so having his fingerprint and DNA evidence on the letter would not prove anything about whether he sent it to himself.
Read days ago that supposedly the brothers gave the cops the magazines they used to clip out the letters used in the fake mail threat
a BANG!
it's already slipping down the memory hole...
what do you do with smollett’s manager who lied ? I’m thinking squeeze him too ?
Plus there was neighbor who swore she saw the white rednecks, one with a rope, loitering ...squeeze her too ?
He doesn’t trust whites. He believes they are a dishonest people.
The networks, the media, the gay lobby, NAACP, all will deny they ever heard of Smollet. If he's smart, he'll let them erase his existence and find something anonymous to do for the rest of his life.
Justice? No, not exactly.
On the upside, you'll never see his face on TV again. No one will hire him and risk reopening this can of very unappetizing worms.
Hopefully it ends very soon. He has gotten way too much attention.
Might go into a holding pattern until there is a big story, like David Duke kicking Oprah, whereupon it will be adjudicated quickly and quietly.
There will be no stories from Chicago, and no mention of nigerian brothers that are really brothers.
MAGA hats will disappear from the press until March, and juicy will be an unknown.
Yes, there must be relevant federal statutes about false reporting and perjury etc. since he would have been telling FBI investigators the fake story about the letter (and would have committed some kind of crime by sending the hoax threat letter through the mail, reportedly with some white powder!!). But what can be legally PROVED is different from what we can see is obvious/likely to have happened. Unless Jussie falls apart and confesses (unlikely) he may be able to brazen his way through, or at least disappear into the usual “celebutard rehab” story to recover.
Still the federal aspect may prove to be what really does him in, if he did manage to bring in any serious counter-terrorism investigators with the white powder angle (I recall reading that there was white powder in the hoax letter, although haven’t seen more about that).
I predict he’ll off himself.
Maybe he doesn't know any.
Or maybe he tried to hire a white guy or two, but none wanted any part of it.
Maybe more hookups with Nigerian body builders?
I wouldn't count on that.
Oh yes, they should definitely be putting the investigative screws to the manager... and the alleged “witness” to non-existent white rednecks.
I wouldn’t assume the manager was in on it, although that’s obviously a possibility. But why would Jussie need to stage the crime over the phone to the manager, unless the manager was to be fooled into testifying to the police about the (hoax) crime??
If Jussie started out doing the hoax/threat letter a week before, he was most likely operating alone at that point (it doesn’t take more than one person to concoct such a hoax letter). I suppose the manager is probably about as demented as Jussie (he does “represent” Jussie, after all), but I wouldn’t assume the manager was in on it all. It could be that Jussie was “using” the manager to provide seemingly independent witness testimony.
Anyway, the whole thing was so fishy from the beginning. And why would Jussie have been on the phone with his manager at 2 am just as an “attack” occurred?? The Chicago PD probably found it all very fishy the moment they started to probe into it a bit.
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