Prosecutor: Jussie Smollett reported ‘fake hate crime’

By DON BABWIN
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — A prosecutor says Jussie Smollett staged a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago in January 2019 with help from two brothers after a television studio didn’t take hate mail he received seriously. Prosecutor Dan Webb says the men took part in the “attack” that made headlines around the world but that Smollett planned the whole thing and paid them to do it. He then reported it to Chicago police, who classified it as a hate crime and spent 3,000 hours on the investigation.  Smollett has maintained he was the victim in the January 2019 attack in downtown Chicago.