Jussie Smollett’s high-profile former supporters faced another round of Twitter justice after the disgraced actor was sent to jail Thursday for five months.
SO WHAT
Let’s hope deterrence works for hate crime hoaxes.
WHAT HAPPENED
Smollett was sentenced to 30 months of felony probation, including 150 days in jail, and ordered to pay restitution of more than $120,000 and a $25,000 fine for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019.
- Many conservative Twitter commentators celebrated the Cook County judge’s ruling, with Liz Wheeler quipping: “So thankful Jussie Smollett’s attacker was sent to jail today.”
- But others sought a reckoning for the liberal elites who helped Smollett promote his hate crime hoax before the facts came to light.
- Let us, as one vengeful Twitter user put it, take a trip down memory lane.
WHAT THEY SAID
Jan. 29, 2019: Liberal politicians and celebrities, from then-presidential candidate Joe Biden to singer John Legend, quickly tweeted full-throated condemnations of American bigotry in response to news of the fake attack against Smollett, who is black and gay.
Jan. 31, 2019: During an emotional appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Elliot Page — then a star actress known as Ellen Page — blamed then-Vice President Mike Pence and the Trump administration for anti-LGBT violence and the Smollett hoax.
Feb. 14, 2019: “Good Morning America” host Robert Roberts sympathetically interviewed Smollett as he claimed he was attacked for opposing then-President Donald Trump.
Feb. 19, 2019: With Chicago police doubting Smollett’s story, then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris struggled with a reporter’s question about whether she stood by her her initial statement calling the hoax a “modern day hate crime.”
March 26, 2019: CNN media critic Brian Stelter made the case after a first round of charges against Smollett were dropped that “we may never really know what happened on the street that night in Chicago.”
Aug. 26, 2019: Comedian Dave Chappelle said in a Netflix special that black people knew from the beginning Smollett was “clearly lying.”
WHAT HE’S SAYING
While Smollett has the lost mainstream support he once enjoyed, he has continued to play victim: In a courtroom rant following Thursday’s sentencing, the actor once again proclaimed his innocence and warned he might be killed in jail, Jeffrey Epstein-style.