Jussie Smollett Sentenced to 150 Days in County Jail for Hate Crime Hoax

In January 2019, Empire actor Jussie Smollett was beaten by two men who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him, and put his head in a noose — an attack that was first investigated as a violent hate crime but quickly grew to be much more complicated.

In less than a month, Chicago police dropped their investigation into the two “persons of interest,” and Smollett faced accusations of orchestrating the attack on himself, leading everyone from Cardi B to Kamala Harris to weigh in on the case.