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Will Don Lemon be fired? CNN star accused of meddling in Jussie Smollett investigation

The CNN anchor blasted the former 'Empire' star after he was found guilty of staging a 'racist and homophobic hate crime'

Don Lemon faced calls to be fired from CNN after he appeared to turn on his old pal Jussie Smollett just hours after he was convicted for faking a hate crime.

The 55-year-old news anchor blasted the former 'Empire' star after the latter was found guilty earlier on Thursday of staging a 'racist and homophobic hate crime' in January 2019 so the producers of the show would have more sympathy for him. Smollett raised eyebrows as he took the stand on Monday, December 6, to allege that Lemon told him in the midst of the investigation that Chicago police did not believe his story. The allegation is yet to be proven, but CNN bosses are already facing calls for Lemon to be ousted, especially after fellow network star Chris Cuomo was fired for meddling in his brother Andrew's defense of sexual harassment allegations.

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Lemon chimed in on the developments just hours after Smollett was convicted of faking a racist and homophobic hate crime. "He had to make up too many lies as to why he didn't want to do certain things," Lemon said Thursday night. "To cover. Like another lie - and I guess he got caught up in that because he took the stand himself. He got angry with the prosecutor as the prosecutor poked holes in his story - calling the only other witnesses liars."

The CNN host also excoriated Smollett for trivializing real victims of hate crimes and listened intently as his legal analyst Joey Jackson called for the actor to face prison time. "I think it's the proper result," Jackson said when asked for his opinion on the verdict. "When you look at the case, the verdict, everything else - many people have said this is a case about credibility; and he said, she said. I disagree. This is a case - every case relies upon credibility, but it's also about a narrative that makes sense. We lawyers before we go before juries and pick them, we say always use your common sense and good judgment. And when you weave a web and tell a tale, it becomes problematic." He continued, "I think that's what happened here. His narrative - Mr Smollett's - didn't carry the day and the jury discerned something was amiss and they found him accountable. So that was the right result."

Jackson noted there were several inconsistencies in Smollett's account and that the actor's defense testimony had proven "devastating" to the case. "Here's what folks are concerned about," Lemon added, "that what he did might undermine future victims, legitimate victims of hate crimes." While the jury took nine hours to deliberate and eventually convict Smollett on five of the six counts, Lemon appeared to have little sympathy for his old friend, who he admitted in 2019 to texting "every day" until the hoax unraveled.

On social media, CNN was inundated with calls to fire Lemon for his alleged meddling in the Smollett investigation. "When is CNN going to fire Don Lemon for assisting and sharing police information with #JussieSmollett?" one tweeted. "Lemon interfered in a criminal investigation. He should be charged as such. Why is CNN keeping him on?" another wrote. "@CNN you got an anchor in @donlemon who is colluding with a convicted felon Jussie Smollet. Time to fire him to save your network," someone else added. "Now that #jussesmollett has been found GUILTY...@CNN needs to fire @donlemon what he did by giving Jussie a "heads up" is no different than what @ChrisCuomo did..and he got fired," another chimed in.