Jussie Smollett Says He Spent $3M Appealing Hoax Case, Maintains His Original Story

Jussie Smollett said he’s spent $3 million appealing his conviction following a purported hate crime attack he was ruled to have staged himself.

“I want to have all of these things in my life, and I don’t want to have a felony on my record for something that I didn’t do,” Smollett said during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “That’s what we’re fighting for. I know that on the surface it probably seems like why doesn’t he just serve the time, why doesn’t he just let this go. It would be easier if I had in fact done this to say that I did it. I wouldn’t have spent almost $3 million of my own money. I would not have had a trial.”

The actor told police on January 29, 2019, that he was attacked by two men in Chicago at 2 a.m. who he claimed made racist and homophobic slurs, wrapped a rope around his neck, poured an “unknown substance” on him, and yelled that this is “MAGA country.” It was later found that Smollett had hired two Nigerian brothers to help him stage the attack. 

The “Empire” star was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021 and spent just six days in jail after appealing his 150 day sentence. Smollett was charged with 16 counts of lying to police, but those charges were dropped. 

Smollett has insisted upon his innocence all along. 

“As an entertainer, as a businessman, I probably should [stop fighting the charges],” Smollett told ET.

“But as a human being and as a man, as a black man and as an openly gay black man, I have a problem with letting them win on something they shouldn’t be able to,” the actor continued. “I’m a grown man and something happened. I can’t tell exactly what did happen, but I can tell you what did not happen. That’s what I have to sit on. No matter how much people are yelling in my face, saying ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I don’t want them to believe that, but if that is what they believe, that’s on you.”

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He argued that while “fighting the very things that are untrue,” he got tripped up by some truths which he claims were used “to prove things that were not true.”

“So there were those moments where I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, my life is kind of — oh, well, I didn’t do that.’ And they’re like, ‘But you did this.’ And I’m like ‘Ah, I did do that. I did buy that.’ And there are things like that that I’ve had to talk to my family about, that I’ve had to talk to friends about,” he said. “I’m OK with accepting responsibility for things that I’ve actually done. I’m just not OK with accepting responsibility for things that I did not do.”

Smollett also insists he’s being honest because he claims his story never changed, but he says other stories relating to the incident did. 

“I’ve stood by, not my truth but the truth for the entire time, almost six years,” he said. “I haven’t switched my story up. I haven’t changed anything that I ever said. I stand by every single thing that I’ve ever said. Everyone else in the situation, every single person, has changed their story numerous times,” Smollett told the outlet.