Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months probation on Thursday for lying to police about a hate crime and politically motivated robbery he staged against himself.
As previously reported by Human Events News, Smollett was found guilty in December on five of the six counts of felony disorderly conduct charges. He potentially faced up to three years in prison for each count.
The former “Empire” actor was found not guilty on the charge of lying about being a victim of aggravated battery, as he did have some facial bruising after the incident.
If you aren’t familiar with the story, Smollett was accused of making a false report to Chicago police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019, an attack prosecutors said he staged.
He told officers he was attacked in the middle of one of the coldest nights of the year by two men wearing Trump hats with bleach and a noose. Detectives discovered the alleged attackers were two brothers who received $3,500 from Smollett, which police argued was payment to carry out the attack.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that medical evidence showed the “attackers” did not actually try to hurt him.
Chicago Judge James Linn said he did not believe the case as it stood could result in multiple consecutive three-year terms.
However, pointing to Smollett’s family history of fighting social injustice, Linn said “the hypocrisy is astounding.”
“The only thing I can find is that you really craved the attention,” Linn added.
“There is nothing worse than to be the victim of a hate crime,” Linn said before announcing the sentence, per The Hill. “And I believe that you did damage to real hate crimes, to hate crime victims.”
