Trump attacks 'racist' Empire actor Jussie Smollett over alleged hoax attack: 'What about MAGA?'
Chicago police say the actor paid two men $3,500 to fake the attack because he wanted to promote his career
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has weighed in on the case of Jussie Smollett, saying that the Empire actor had insulted his followers by allegedly staging a hate crime and blaming it on the president's supporters.
"What about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!?" Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday after it was announced the actor had been charged with filing a false police report.
Smollett turned himself into police on Thursday morning after Chicago officials announced they were pursuing charges against the 36-year-old actor for filing a false police report surrounding an alleged incident on 29 January.
The actor told police investigators at that time that he had been attacked by two men wearing ski masks who used racial and homophobic slurs before throwing an unknown chemical substance on him and wrapping a noose around his neck.
"This is MAGA country," Smollett, a gay black man, said the assailants told him in reference to the president's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan.
During press conference discussing the charges against the actor, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said his investigators had determined that most of Smollett's injuries from that evening were likely self inflicted, and that the actor had wasted valuable police resources by filing his report.
He continued to claim that Smollett had paid his alleged assailants $3,500 to attack him because he was dissatisfied with his salary on Empire.
“This announcement today recognises that Empire actor Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” Mr Johnson said at a news conference. “Why would anyone, especially an African-American use a noose ... to further his public profile?“
Just hours before Smollett was declared ot be a suspect by Chicago police on Wednesday, a joint statement from 20th Centruy Fox Television and Fox Entertainment indicated the actor would not be written out of Empire.
“Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show,” that statement.
A statement following the actor's arrest was not immediately available.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments