Jussie Smollett's Fake Noose conviction overturned

Trump Department of Justice should pursue federal charges against the former TV star, Friend of Kamala, and Hate Hoaxer.

Back in 2004, my editor at The American Conservative invented the elegant alliterative term “Hate Hoax” as the title of my article about a scandal at Claremont-McKenna college where a professor accused her white male students of smashing up her Honda. But two witnesses had already reported seeing her do it herself.

Over the next decade and a half, hate hoaxes of this ilk proliferated in the headlines, but the term “hate hoax” never caught on. And, as Orwell pointed out in the appendix to 1984, without a term to refer to a concept, it’s hard to make sense of the blooming, buzzing confusion of reality.

Blood libels are bad things, but for many years, they were never really a Thing to most Americans. Instead, hate hoaxes were just some headline about white racism that quickly disappeared from the news, never to be mentioned again.

But in 2019, TV star Jussie Smollett staged a hate hoax so hilariously over the top that, after almost all the Democratic presidential contenders endorsed it publicly, Jussie became the face of the phenomenon.

Chicago cops had a good time wandering around in one of the most expensive parts of town checking out Jussie’s ridiculous conspiracy and leaking their findings to realistic local reporters, while the national press initially kept trumpeting Jussie’s claims.

Eventually, the credibility of Jussie’s absurd hoax collapsed. But because Jussie was so well connected politically, especially to future VP Kamala Harris, Chicago DA Kim Foxx dropped the charges against him.

Public outrage led to a special prosecutor being appointed and Jussie being convicted by a jury and sentenced to 150 days. But after 6 days, he was let out and pursued his appeal that he was a victim of double jeopardy.

From CBS News in Chicago today:

Actor Jussie Smollett's hate crime hoax conviction overturned by Illinois Supreme Court

By Todd Feurer, Sabrina Franza

Updated on: November 21, 2024 / 6:17 PM CST / CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett's conviction for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself in Chicago in 2019.

The state's highest court did not weigh in on the merits of the case against Smollett, ruling only that his constitutional rights were violated when he was prosecuted a second time, after the original charges against him were dropped in 2019.

What’s the statute of limitations on federal charges?

It’s common for whites acquitted on state charges of abusing blacks to then be convicted on federal charges: e.g., the LAPD officers who whomped on Rodney King. This might sound like Double Jeopardy, but it’s okay.

Defense attorneys had argued his trial violated his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy, after Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office agreed to drop the original charges against him.

A special prosecutor, Dan Webb, was later assigned to reinvestigate the case, and brought a new indictment against him, but Smollett's attorneys have argued that Webb never should have been allowed to bring new charges.

On Thursday, the state's highest court sided with Smollett's attorneys, reversing his conviction, and ordering the case against him dismissed…

In a statement, special prosecutor Dan Webb said he was disappointed with the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling, and disagreed with the court's reasoning that dismissing the original charges precluded a new prosecution.

"Make no mistake—today's ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett's innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury's unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court," Webb said.

But Uche said Smollett still maintains he is innocent.

"He's innocent, and he's always maintained his innocence, and there have been … a mountain of reasonable doubt and evidence pointing to his innocence in this case that nobody has bothered to take a look at," Uche said.

The more Jussie Smollett stays in the news, the better, the more educational it is for the public to be reminded of the existence of hate hoaxes.

While the criminal case against Smollett is now over, a civil case remains in play between Smollett and the City of Chicago.

Miller said the court's ruling is unlikely to have any effect on a lawsuit that the city of Chicago filed against Smollett in 2019, seeking to force Smollett to reimburse the city more than $130,000 for the cost of the investigation into his hate crime claims, after police determined it was a hoax.

Smollett has countersued the city, accusing police of malicious prosecution.

"Frankly, this decision today by the Illinois Supreme Court really doesn't affect that federal case whatsoever. It's still going to go on to determine if, in fact, he made a false police report, and the city of Chicago, because of that, spent thousands and thousands of dollars in police overtime and salary in investigating the case.

In January 2019, the Smollett said he was beaten by two masked men who poured bleach on him, and hung a noose around his neck, while shouting homophobic and racist slurs, and told him "this is MAGA country."

The Trump DOJ should look into what they can charge him with. The more Jussie is in the headlines, the more the public is educated in the reality of hate hoaxes.