President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Jussie Smollett, the former “Empire” actor who was accused earlier this year of faking a violent hate attack against himself and blaming it on Trump supporters.
“You have the case of this wise guy Jussie Smollett who beat up himself, and he said ‘MAGA country’ did it,” said Trump at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago, where Smollett’s attack allegedly took place. “It’s a crime, it’s a hate crime. And it’s a scam, it’s a real big scam, just like the impeachment of your president is a scam.”
“And you look what’s going on, Smollett is still trying to get away with it. He would have been better off if he paid his $100,000 bill,” the president continued, possibly referencing the fact that the actor had to post a $100,000 bond in order to be released after being charged with multiple felony accounts.
Smollett, 37, claimed this January that two MAGA-hat-wearing men doused him with bleach, threw a noose around his neck, and beat him up in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood while shouting: “This is MAGA country.” Chicago police and prosecutors, however, found that Smollett orchestrated the attack with the help of two brothers. One brother had a minor role in the FOX TV series “Empire” and the other was Smollett’s personal trainer.
A grand jury indicted Smollett on 16 felony charges including filing a false report and disorderly conduct, to which he pled not guilty. Cook County prosecutors decided to drop all the charges in March but maintained that they still believed that Smollett had lied about the attack.
Furious over the prosecutor’s decision, Chicago Police defended the result of their investigation: that Smollett hired the two men to carry out the attack because he was unhappy with his salary on “Empire.”
Before turning to Smollett, Trump talked about the Chicago Police and the city itself.
“All over the world they’re talking about Chicago,” he said. “Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison. It’s true. Police officers of Chicago are entitled to a police superintendent who has their backs and knows what’s he is doing.”
Trump noted that there were 565 murders in Chicago last year, but that since Eddie Johnson, the city’s head of police took office, the number of murder victims in the city rose to more than 1,500.
“It’s a shame, and I want Eddie Johnson to change his values and change them fast,” he said. Eddie Johnson did not show up at the conference after he openly boycotted the president’s scheduled speech.
