Jussie Smollett Sentenced to Five Months in Jail in Hate Crime Hoax

variety.com:

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterFormer “Empire” star Jussie Smollett was sentenced to five months in jail on Thursday for concocting a hate crime hoax, in which he lied to police about being jumped by two men who yelled racist and homophobic slurs.Judge James Linn also ordered Smollett to pay $120,000 restitution to the city of Chicago, plus a $25,000 fine, and to serve 30 months of probation.

After the sentence was announced, Smollett stood up and said, “I am innocent and I am not suicidal.” Smollett continued to shout as he was led out of the courtroom and remanded to custody.Linn delivered a scathing rebuke before rendering the sentence, saying Smollett had taken some “scabs off some healing wounds” because he wanted to make himself more famous. “You’ve turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans.

You’ve destroyed your life as you knew it,” Linn said. “You wanted to get the attention and you were so invested in issues of social justice, and you knew this was a sore spot for everybody in this country… You were throwing a national pity party for yourself.”Smollett sat impassively, wearing a mask with his hands crossed at the defense table, as Linn called him a “charlatan,” and said the crime had exposed a side of his personality that is “profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic.”“You’ve turned yourself from riches to rags,” Linn said. “Your very name has become an adverb for lying.”Several of Smollett’s supporters had expressed concern for his safety if he were sentenced to a jail term, given the notoriety of his case.