Jussie Smollett Brother Rants: There Is ‘Absolutely No Evidence’ of a Hoax
By ALANA MASTRANGELO
- Jocqui Smollett, brother of hate crime hoaxer and disgraced actor Jussie Smollett, insists that “there is absolutely no evidence” that his sibling staged a hate crime against himself, and claims that Smollett being sentenced to jail has set a “precedent.”
“I want y’all to Google right now the long list of ‘wrongful convictions’ in the United States. There were 150 exonerations in 2018 alone aka the government realizing they wrongfully convicted someone,” the actor’s brother Jocqui Smollett wrote in an Instagram Story, reports Newsweek.
“Y’all blindly believe in our criminal justice system so much that you think a guilty verdict means the crime was committed — there is absolutely no evidence linking Jussie to staging his own hate crime besides the testimony of two brothers… That’s ‘he said she said,’ not litigation,” he added.
Jussie Smollett (L) and Jocqui Smollett backstage at the 2017 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for BET)
In January 2019, Smollett had claimed he was physically attacked by two men wearing red hats who put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him, and shouted racial and homophobic slurs at him, before eventually yelling, “This is MAGA country!” — referring to former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
During Smollett’s trial, prosecutors showcased how the former Empire actor had gone through extraordinary lengths to stage the hate crime against himself, and how he hired and paid Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo $3,500 to carry out the attack.
On Thursday, Judge James Linn sentenced Smollett to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, restitution of $120,106, and a fine of $25,000, following a conviction for lying to police.
Jocqui Smollett is now claiming that his brother’s sentencing sets a “precedent,” and that people can now go to jail for simply hanging out with a friend who decides to lie about them.
“Are you not terrified of the precedent this now sets?” Jocqui Smollett continued in his Instagram post. “That means you could hang out with some folks, one of them being your friend and then all it takes is those two individuals saying you did something for you to be convicted guilty of a crime!!! Wild!!!”
“No concrete evidence at all and the government locks you up — I keep getting DM’s ‘But there’s overwhelming evidence’ — there absolutely is not and if you think that you’ve clearly been manipulated by the media due to lacking critical thinking skills,” he added.
Jocqui Smollett, however, seemingly forgot to mention that his brother was sentenced to jail after being convicted of lying to the police when he filed a false police report — not for hanging out with friends who later decided to make up a story about him.
During the sentencing on Thursday, Judge Linn noted that Smollett hiring the Osundairo brothers to stage an attack against him was not a crime, but that lying to the police about the attack, was.
While being hauled off to jail on Thursday, the actor repeatedly shouted, “I am not suicidal, and I am innocent” with his fist raised.
On Saturday, Smollett’s brother Jocqui Smollett revealed that the actor has been placed in a psych ward at the Cook County jail.
