To quickly recap: Smollett, an openly gay actor and musician who stars in the Fox show, “Empire,” recently claimed he was the victim of a horrific hate crime perpetuated by Trump-supporting thugs. Besides acting, Smollett is well known for being an outspoken critic of President Trump.
According to the account relayed to the celebrity gossip site, TMZ, Smollett was attacked upon leaving a Chicago Subway sandwich shop around 2 AM. The masked attackers, he says, recognized him, hurled racial and homophobic epithets at him (”Empire f*gg*t n*gger!”), beat him up, tied a noose around his neck, poured bleach on him, and said triumphantly, “This is MAGA Country!”
The original report said his rib was broken in the attack and he was recovering in a hospital. Smollett also told police that in the days before the attack, he received a death threat in the mail. That letter was signed “MAGA,” the same thing he says his attackers yelled. The letter itself used letters from magazines to conceal the sender’s handwriting:
News of the attack immediately went viral, and celebrities worldwide used the incident to denounce what they described as growing intolerance of minorities.