On January 29, 2019, American actor Jussie Smollett approached the Chicago Police Department and reported a hate crime that he had staged earlier that morning.

[1][2] He planned the fake hate crime with two Nigerian-American brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who had worked as extras on the set of television drama Empire, in which Smollett was a cast member.

[3][2] He also told police the men shouted "This is MAGA country"[4] during the attack, a reference to the political slogan "Make America Great Again".

[7][8] On February 20, Smollett was indicted for disorderly conduct for paying the brothers to stage a fake hate crime and filing a false police report.

[9] His defense team reached a deal with prosecutors on March 26, 2019, in which all charges were dropped in return for Smollett performing community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond.

On February 11, 2020, after further investigation by a special prosecutor was completed, Smollett was indicted again by a Cook County grand jury on six counts pertaining to making four false police reports.

[13] On March 10, 2022, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in county jail[14] and was ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution for the overtime spent by Chicago police officers investigating his false reports.

[18] On January 29, Smollett announced that he had been attacked early that morning on the 300 block of East Lower North Water Street in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood,[19] in what was initially investigated as a hate crime.

[21] Smollett told police that, after getting food from a Subway restaurant around 2:00 a.m.,[22] he was attacked by two men, who were "yelling out racial and homophobic slurs" and who "poured an unknown chemical substance on [him]".

[27] A witness, an employee of NBC News Chicago, who was near the scene of Smollett's alleged incident and was exiting her car around the "corner from the location,"[28] said that she heard nothing.

[29] The assailants explained that Smollett's plan was to post the footage on social media,[6] and that he became very upset when police told him that no cameras had recorded the attack.

[37] Smollett said that the attack may have been motivated by his criticism of the Trump administration[38] and that he believed that the alleged assault was linked to the threatening letter that had been sent to him earlier that month.

The men, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, were brothers of Nigerian descent[44] who'd acted as extras on Empire, the television series in which Smollett was a main cast member.

"[50] On February 16, two unnamed police sources informed CNN that investigators had discovered evidence indicating that Smollett had paid the two brothers $3,500 to stage the attack.

[51][52] Financial records indicate that the brothers purchased the rope found around Smollett's neck at a hardware store in Ravenswood over the weekend of January 25.

[47] On February 19, 2019, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said that she was recusing herself from the investigation due to her "familiarity with potential witnesses in the case", prompting criticism from her predecessor, Anita Alvarez.

Foxx added that Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson had reached out to the FBI about handing the Smollett case off to them, but had informed her that the agency was not interested.

[68] Later that day, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson held a press conference, gave details of the investigation, and explained how the department concluded that the alleged assault was staged.

[72] Police alleged that the actor intended to further his career by tying the incident to racism in the United States and President Trump, and that Smollett sent himself the threatening letter.

"[100] On August 23, 2019, former United States Attorney Dan K. Webb was assigned as special prosecutor to review Jussie Smollett's case and the events leading to the charges being dropped.

The judge ruled Webb could continue to investigate as special prosecutor since his donation was "a routine practice of lawyers" and that it should have "no effect on his ability to be fair and impartial".

[105] According to the special prosecutor, Smollett "faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from four separate false reports that he gave to police.

"[106][105] In March 2021, Smollett attempted to hire lawyer Nenye Uche to represent him, but prosecutors challenged the appointment with allegations of conflicts of interest.

[118] Ola Osundairo, who Smollett claimed is homophobic, took the stand to present evidence that he gets paid to be involved in homosexual activities, such as being employed at a bar as a bouncer and modeling at pride parades.

[121] On March 10, 2022, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in county jail,[14] and was also ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution for the overtime spent by Chicago police officers.

[15] During the sentencing hearing, which lasted more than five hours, Judge James B. Linn excoriated Smollett from the bench, repeatedly calling him "narcissistic, selfish, and arrogant".

[118] On March 1, 2023, Smollett's attorney filed an appeal of his 150-day sentence related to the felony disorderly conduct conviction in his hate crime hoax.

[133] Prior to his arrest, many prominent Democratic politicians, including Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand, quickly came out in support of Smollett and condemned the alleged hate crime.

[135] Ultimately, Democratic presidential candidates who supported Smollett backed off their prior comments and claimed that the hoax does a disservice to victims of real hate crimes.

[further explanation needed][147] On October 22, federal judge Virginia Kendall denied a motion for dismissal on the theory that Smollett could not have predicted the level of expenses that his false report would induce the police to incur.