With its accompanying media fanfare, the case of the unraveling hate hoax put forward by “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has captured the attention and outrage of Americans.
The story Smollett put forward on Jan. 29 — that he was beaten, doused in chemicals, placed in a noose, and attacked with racial and homophobic epithets by two white Trump supporters who called out “MAGA country” when their assault ended — fell apart over the following month, as the Chicago Police Department devoted massive resources to uncovering that Smollett, who is black and gay, had directed two associates, both of whom are black, to stage the attack for an alleged $3,500. Though Smollett was indicted by a grand jury of 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct on March 7, all charges against the unrepentant actor were dropped on March 26.
While many believe the dropped charges are a miscarriage of justice, others, like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., disagree. In an interview with “Extra” on March 31, the representative provided a list of false and misleading claims to explain why she believes dismissing the charges against Smollett was the “correct thing” to do.
“First of all,” Waters said, “We probably will never know all of the details. We’ve heard a lot of information. No one was hurt — that is, physically, killed, shot — he never committed a crime before, he forfeited the bail and it’s this kind of situation where they close the case all over the country every day. I have learned this isn’t unusual.”
To correct the most glaring error in Waters’ statement, Smollett has previously committed crimes. And not just when, about a week before staging his more high-profile hate crime, he lied to authorities about a piece of hate mail he is believed to have sent himself at the Chicago address where “Empire” is filmed. Inside the letter was white powder, which has now been determined to be a “pulverized, legal painkiller.”
Smollett’s alleged assault marks the third separate incident for which he has criminally falsified information to authorities. In 2007, when stopped for driving under the influence in Los Angeles, Smollett falsely provided his brother’s name to police, and signed a phony name on documents promising to appear for court. He would later plead no contest to charges of “giving false information, in addition to DUI and driving without a license,” according to Page Six.
Secondly, it is absurd for Waters to imply that, by forfeiting to the city of Chicago the $10,000 bail he paid to secure his $100,000 bond, Smollett has made up for the time and energy an already overstretched Chicago Police Department devoted to exposing the truth beneath his lies. Those who understand the extent of Chicago’s Smollett-associated burden disagree. On March 28, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel demanded the actor pay $130,000 to the city to account for the “police overtime hours expended in the investigation.” If he refuses to pay, the actor was warned, the city “may prosecute [Smollett] for making a false statement.”
Finally, Waters is wrong to equivocate over the “harm” done by Smollett’s crimes. While his accusations have not physically caused injury or death, as Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson explained, his claims have hurt future hate crime victims, whose cases “will now publicly be met with … skepticism.”
Further, by making such serious false accusations to create a justification for his own well-documented hatred of President Trump, Smollett has added both gasoline and oxygen to the anti-Trump fire. Waters herself, according to RealClearPolitics, gave an interview on Jan. 30 said Trump, by “separating and dividing,” and “emboldening those folks who feel this way,” was responsible for Smollett’s alleged attack. Even Emanuel, on the same day he demanded Smollett repay Chicago for his hoax, claimed that the president remains responsible for the “toxic environment” in which no attack by Trump supporters was made on Smollett.
This leads to the first thing Waters got right: that false hate crimes, sadly, are not unusual. Journalist Andy Ngo has created a Twitter thread identifying more than 80 instances of hate hoaxes, occurring between 2015 and present day, which have been proven false. Many of these were performed to demonstrate the supposedly active and vicious hatred of Trump supporters.
The second truth in Waters’ statement? That there is an awful lot of information out there about Smollett, from his past of lying to police, to the method by which he sought to further divide a country chock-full with media-fueled hatred, to the way that the actor’s privilege has played to his consistent advantage while he refuses to cop to any wrongdoing.
With the easy availability of so many facts, it raises the question: Is Waters actively trying to mislead the public, or is she simply choosing to remain seriously misled?
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
