Will Jussie Smollett be jailed? Trump says he would've got 25 yrs if he was Republican
After actor Jussie Smollett was convicted for staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself, former President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue dubbing the incident a 'hate crime in reverse'. Smollett had initially accused Trump supporters of perpetrating the hate crime against him, which was proven to be false later. Donald Trump has been quite vocal in chastising the 'Empire' actor for faking a hate crime ever since the incident in 2019. While Smollett believes that his verdict will be overturned, Trump advocated for a rigorous jail time for him.
Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump said, "This is really a hate crime. Sort of a hate crime in reverse. And he's not going to get away with it. If he were a Republican, if he were on the other side, he'd be in jail for 25 years for hate crimes for what he did and for what he said," he added. He further dubbed Smollett a 'con man' who orchestrated a hoax crime to coerce Fox into renewing his contract on the TV series 'Empire'.
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On Thursday, December 9, Smollett was convicted in five out of six counts of disorderly conduct. He was on trial for a January 2019 incident when the former 'Empire' star complained to the police that he was the victim of a hate crime. Back then, Smollett was indicted for paying Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo for staging a racist and homophobic MAGA attack on himself. He falsely claimed that the 'Trump supporters' who attacked him screamed 'this is MAGA country' during the assault.
Following his conviction, Smollett's attorney said that the accused is “100 percent confident” that his client will be cleared by an appeals court on all the charges. "We feel 100 percent confident that this case will be won on appeal,” Nenye Uche, lead attorney for the defense, said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the route we wanted but sometimes that’s the route you have to take to win, especially a case where we remain 100 percent confident in our client’s innocence.”
“He’s a human being, he’s disappointed — but I will tell you this I am very proud of him, I’m very, very proud of him,” Uche added. “He’s holding up very strong he’s committed to clearing his name and he’s 100 percent confident that he’s going to get cleared by the appellate court.”
While a date for Smollett's sentence hearing is yet to be set, Conservative critics are advocating for a long jail term, even life, for the 39-year-old actor. Donald Trump has now shared his opinion on the same, saying, "He was the con man, and he wanted to try and get sympathy so he could have his contract renewed for his ridiculous television series. So that didn't work out too well."
He continued, "And then, on top of it, he got caught. And you know it's interesting. He wouldn't have been caught except that he pressed it all the way. He pressed it too far. He wanted apologies and everything else. And then the police came, and they did an amazing job. And they caught him cold, and he deserves it."
