Jussie Smollett is convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct and faces 20 years in jail

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Jussie Smollett has been convicted of faking a racist and homophobic hate crime, and faces up to 24 years in jail for staging the crime and concocting a ‘ridiculous story’. 

The former Empire TV star stood rigid and showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts on five of the six counts of disorderly conduct were read out in the Chicago courtroom by Judge James Linn.

‘For Mr Smollett to get up and lie for hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct,’ said Dan Webb, the special prosecutor. 

Smollett – who was not guilty on the last count – had paced nervously, continually straightening his tie and adjusting the jacket of his gray suit before the jurors came in to deliver the devastating blow.

Before the jury foreperson read the verdicts, Judge Linn appealed against court outbursts, adding: ‘I understand how emotional this has been for everybody.’

After they were delivered, he said: ‘You can tell by the tension in the courtroom that so much was at stake.’

Smollett, 39, continued to clasp his hands in front of him as he sat back down and the judge thanked the jurors. 

Linn ordered a pre-sentence investigation and agreed Smollett should remain on bond. He is set to be freed on bail until his sentencing. 

Each of the level four felony counts Smollett has been convicted of carries a sentence of up to four years behind bars. Smollett has no prior convictions, but his decision to deny the charges, and present an unconvincing and ultimately unsuccessful defense to jurors means a judge is more likely to give him a harsher sentence.  

‘This jury worked so hard – and for Mr Smollett to get up and lie for hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct,’ said Webb, the special prosecutor. 

‘We don’t expect defendants to do that. Defendants have a right to go to trial, but do not have the right to go in front of a jury and lie under oath. 

‘Mr Smollett would not have lost this case, had the jury not concluded that he’d lied to them.

‘The fact that he came up with a completely ridiculous story to explain his misconduct did not affect the verdict.’

Webb said he did not think Smollett would be charged with perjury. 

‘The resounding verdict which we received form this jury which they found Mr Smollett guilty of exactly what we said he did…that verdict was a resounding message by the jury that Mr Smollett did exactly what we said he did,’ he said.

‘After hearing all the evidence, whether what Mr Smollett was right or wrong was very controversial. Whether we won or lost the trial was not the issue, what was the issue was that what Mr Smollett had done in this city should be aired in a public trial, all the evidence comes out, but the true facts, I thought, needed to come out.

‘We’ve now won this case. We’ve come away with the jury agreeing that they should have heard the case, and he’s now been found guilty.’ 

Webb also praised the Chicago police department for untangling the web of lies spun by Smollett.

‘This police department responded that they absolutely took it seriously, he was the victim of a hate crime,’ he said.

‘They worked so hard, for the next three weeks 26 police officers spent over 3,000 hours investigating a hate crime that did not take place, and denigrates real hate crimes.

‘The work they did was extraordinary. I have told the jury that what happened here was so wrong for the CPD. Maybe the CPD is not perfect, but what they did on this case was extraordinary.’ 

The actor had returned to court on Thursday evening after around eight hours of deliberations to learn his fate with his family by his side, after being given a 30 minute warning around 5:30pm EST.  He was photographed walking into court arm-in-arm with his mother. 

Smollett arrived at the courthouse in a black Lincoln SUV shortly after it was announced the verdict had been reached. He wore a long gray coat, white shirt, black tie, black scarf and black leather gloves, as well as a black face mask.

The actor did not answer when asked by reporters what his desired outcome for the case was and if he was nervous to learn the jury’s decision. 

His trial has lasted just under two weeks and concluded on Wednesday with five hours of closing arguments, during which Smollett, whose biggest role was on Empire, was branded a ‘serial liar’ by the prosecution. 

He denied paying Abimbola ‘Abel’ Osundairo and Olabinjo ‘Ola’ Osundairo – two Nigerian brothers who he knew – to stage the attack to boost his celebrity profile, as police had alleged.  

His attorney failed to offer a motive for why the brothers might have lied, suggesting that it could have been because Abel was pretending not to be gay and Ola was a homophobe, or also that they wanted him to hire them as security guards so scared him into thinking that he needed them. 

The case now draws to an end nearly three years after Smollett first claimed he had been the victim of the hate crime. 

Smollett, now 39, was supported by his family throughout the trial, as he has been over the last three years. 

He could not explain why the brothers were there that night if it was not to attack him as they claimed he’d instructed them to do. 

Among the claims he made during his testimony was that the brothers offered to change their story and retract their allegations that he’d paid them to stage the attack if he gave them $2million. 

His attorneys said both of the brothers were ‘sophisticated’, seasoned criminals when in fact only one of them has a criminal record. 

Legal experts were dumbfounded that Smollett took the stand. 

They called it a ‘disaster’ and a desperate attempt to either confuse the jury so they’d have no choice but to acquit, or save his defense. 

It is a devastating blow for the former child actor who won millions of fans as gay black musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox TV drama.

His character was removed from the final two episodes of the series’ fifth season because of the assault controversy – and he admitted in court: ‘I’ve lost my livelihood’.

The black and gay actor created massive headlines and sparked a police manhunt after he falsely told cops he was attacked near his downtown Chicago apartment building around 2am on January 29, 2019 – leaving him with a noose around his neck.

Celebrities and advocacy groups rallied around him. Former president Donald Trump branded the attack ‘horrible’.

But his story began to unravel publicly within weeks of him claiming it was two white men in dark clothes and ski masks who pounced after he went out in freezing temperatures with the intention of buying eggs.

He said he was punched by one of them who yelled ‘this is MAGA country n*****’ in reference to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan. A noose was put around his neck and an unknown substance poured on him, he claimed.

Smollett insisted to police at first that the attackers were white, because he saw a glimpse of skin in a gap in one of the men’s ski masks. He filed a hate crime and battery report.

In fact the fake attack was carried out by Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olanbinjio Osundairo who the star had paid $3,500. And the actor changed his story, saying in court his attackers had ‘pale’ skin.

The brothers left for Nigeria shortly after the hoax and were arrested when they returned mid-February. They cooperated with the police, saying they were hired for the attack.

Smollett was first arrested in February, 2019, on allegations that he made a false police report. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson claimed at the time the star staged the stunt because he was ‘dissatisfied’ with his $100,000 an episode salary on Empire.

The cop added Smollett ‘took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career… this publicity stunt was a scar that Chicago didn’t earn and certainly didn’t deserve’.

Smollett was hit with 16 disorderly conduct charges. 

But at his first arraignment in March these were suddenly dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, sparking fury with cops and then-mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Special Prosecutor Dan Webb took on the case in 2020, after Kim Foxx’s office dropped a first set of charges against him in a decision that was widely criticized as an example of nepotism. 

She had been in contact with one of Smollett’s sisters in the days and weeks before he was arrested or was a suspect in the case. 

She also spoke with Tina Chen, Michelle Obama’s associate and friend who was also part of founding #MeToo. 

Chen has since said she was never trying to influence the investigation and that Smollett was a victim at the time. 

However a year later Special Prosecutor Webb announced the six new felony charges against Smollett after a grand jury revived the criminal case against him.

And Webb nailed Smollett by branding him a liar in his closing arguments at Chicago’s Leighton Criminal Courthouse this week – with the jury agreeing.

Webb said there was ‘no question’ the Osundairo brothers carried out the hoax attack. He added: ‘And there is no question that Mr Smollett is the person who orchestrated it.

‘Mr Smollett went on that witness stand and made many, many false statements to you, he lied under oath to you jurors in the course of this trial.

‘I clearly established he was providing you false testimony on critical issues. I cross examined him yesterday because it was clear to me that he was tailoring his testimony.

‘He knew there was a substantial amount of evidence that showed he did exactly what the brothers said he did. And he knew there was surveillance and GPS evidence.’

The star had hired Abimbola, known as Bola, as fitness coach to help him get ‘ripped’ for a music video, the court heard. They met for the first time in 2017 on the set of Empire when the Nigerian was working as an extra.

Bola took the stand and told jurors that Smollett had asked him to ‘fake beat him up’ – and wanted him to use an anti-gay slur and say MAGA during a staged attack.

He said he and Smollett had a brotherly bond. ‘We became good friends. I would say I would call him my brother,’ he added.

‘I was confused. I looked puzzled,’ he told jurors. ‘He explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up.

‘I agreed to do it because.. I felt indebted to Jussie. I also believed he could help further my acting career. He told me that we needed another person to fake beat him up. He mentioned, could my brother do it. I said yes.’