what did jussie smollett do

Jussie Smollett is an actor who, in January 2019, falsely reported to the Chicago Police that he was the victim of a racially and homophobically motivated attack by two masked men. He claimed the assailants poured a chemical substance on him and put a noose around his neck while shouting racial and homophobic slurs, including "This is MAGA country." After investigation, Chicago police found that Smollett had staged the attack and paid two Nigerian-American brothers, with whom he had worked, to carry it out. Security footage and other evidence supported the police's conclusion that Smollett fabricated the attack and filed a false police report. In 2021, Smollett was convicted on five felony counts of lying to the police about this staged attack. In March 2022, he was sentenced to 150 days in jail, fined $25,000, ordered to pay more than $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, and given 30 months of felony probation. However, in November 2024, the Supreme Court of Illinois overturned his conviction on the grounds that his Fifth Amendment rights had been violated in prosecution following an earlier plea bargain. Despite the overturned conviction, the special prosecutor stated that Smollett was "not innocent" and that overwhelming evidence showed he orchestrated the fake hate crime. Smollett has maintained his innocence publicly and was the subject of a 2025 Netflix documentary discussing the case.