Jussie Smollett has been found guilty of staging his own hate crime and lying to the police.
The former Empire star was charged with six counts of disorderly conduct, after falsely reporting he had been the victim of a homophobic and racist attack in January 2019.
He was found guilty on five of the six counts, each count representing a false statement made.
In January 2019, Jussie allegedly told police that he was walking home in Chicago when two masked men attacked him, and hurled racist abuse at him.
In court, prosecutors claimed the actor staged the attack to get media attention, and paid $3,500 to two brothers, Abimbola “Bola” and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, to help him fake the incident.
During his court testimony, Abimbola claimed he was contacted by Jussie who “explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up.”
According to CBS2, Abimbola said he agreed because he “felt indebted to Jussie” and “believed he could further my acting career.”
Jussie repeatedly denied their claims in court, and said their account was “100% false”.
During the week-long trial, the actor’s defence attorneys argued that the brothers attacked him because they were homophobic and did not like “who he was”.
They also claimed the brothers made up the story about the attack being “fake” to get money from Jussie.
Jussie is now facing up to three years in prison, but could instead be sentenced to probation and community service.
The judge overseeing the case did not set a date for sentencing, but scheduled a hearing for January 27, 2022.
