Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax
On January 29, 2019, American actor Jussie Smollett approached the Chicago Police Department and reported a fake hate crime that he had staged against himself earlier that morning. He enlisted two Nigerian-American brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who had worked with him on the television drama Empire, to plan and execute the hoax. The hoax took place on East Lower North Water Street in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood. In disguise the brothers shouted racial and homophobic slurs while one poured bleach on Smollett and the other placed a noose around his neck. Smollett described one of them as a white male and told police he shouted "This is MAGA country", a reference to the political slogan "Make America Great Again". The brothers later testified that Smollett staged the attack near a surveillance camera so that video of it could be publicized.
In February 2019, a Chicago police raid on the home of the Osundairo brothers uncovered evidence they had been paid $3,500 by Smollett and purchased the rope found around Smollett's neck, and police also found clothing-store security camera footage of the brothers buying clothes like those worn by the attackers. Smollett was indicted for disorderly conduct for paying the brothers to stage a fake hate crime and filing a false police report. His defense team reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in March 2019, in which all charges were dropped in return for Smollett performing community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond.
In February 2020, after further investigation by a special prosecutor, Smollett was indicted again by a Cook County grand jury on six counts pertaining to making four false police reports. In December 2021, Smollett was convicted on five felony counts. In March 2022, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in county jail and was ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution for the overtime spent by Chicago police officers investigating his false reports. Smollett's attorneys immediately filed an appeal and he was released after posting a personal recognizance bond.
In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Illinois overturned Smollett's conviction. The court agreed that Smollett's Fifth Amendment rights had been violated when he was prosecuted again after the earlier plea bargain. In response, special prosecutor Dan Webb said that Smollett is "not innocent," and noted that during the appeal, Smollett's defense never challenged the "overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department". In the 2025 Netflix documentary The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, Smollett maintains that he is innocent.