Jussie Smollett revisits attack allegations in new Netflix documentary

Six years after saying that he was the victim of a hate crime, actor Jussie Smollett continues to push the story advanced by Chicago officials that everything was a “hoax”.

In “The Truth About Jussie Smollett?”, A new Netflix documentary who made his debut Thursday, the former star of “Empire” revisits the legal battle surrounding the alleged attack, which police and the city officials said they had orchestrated against itself.

Although the release of the documentary occurs a little more than three months after Smollett and the city of Chicago reached a civil regulations, the actor spends a large part of his interview segments defending himself and now his innocence.

“In the end, it doesn’t matter if someone loves me or does not love me,” said Smollett in the documentary, adding that “the fact is: I haven’t done that. And that’s all that matters.”

Smollett, which is black and gay, first pointed out a crime of hatred committed against him in January 2019, alleging that two men confronted him with racial and homophobic insults, wrapped a rope around his neck and poured the whitening.

However, city officials continued Smollett and accused him of having submitted a false police report on January 29, 2019, saying that he knew his attackers and had planned the attack. The city’s trial requested $ 130,000 in expenses devoted to the police investigation. Smollett has contradicted, denying that he orchestrated the attack.

The Olabingo brothers and Abimbola Osundairo, who worked in the “Empire” set and the author of a book entitled “Bigger Than Jusie: the disturbing need for a modern lynching”, said that they had been paid by Smollett to organize hatred crime and testified against the actor during his trial.

In addition to Smollett, the documentary presents interviews with: The Smollett lawyer; former Chicago police officials; Osundairo brothers brothers their lawyer; And journalists who covered the case.

“I think he wanted to be the poster of activism for blacks, for homosexuals, for marginalized people,” Osundairo told Smollett in the documentary.

“Ola” said Osundairo when Smollett asked them to “beat him”, he “thought it was crazy”. “But at the same time, I say to myself:” It’s Hollywood. “This is how it happens,” he said in the documentary.

Smollett was found guilty of five criminal driving charges disorderly for crime in December 2021 and sentenced to 150 days in prison and 30 months of probation in March 2022. But the Supreme Court of Illinois canceled the conviction in November 2024.

The High Court of the State ruled that Smollett should never have been charged in the first place after having concluded a non-preparation agreement in the office of the County County Prosecutor.

The case of years captured the country, many speculating on what really happened while Smollett continued to make the headlines.

In the documentary, Smollett said he “played Whack-A-Mole with rumors, with lies” throughout the investigation.

But, “at some point, it’s too much, and you can’t catch them all,” he added.

The documentary, which comes from the producers of “The Tinder Swindler”, says in his promotional documents that he wants “the public decides by themselves who says” the truth.

Smollett did not comment on the documentary on his social networks. He gave a long interview to Variety before his release, in which he addressed the overall impact of the case on him.

“The story of each other person has changed several times. Mine has never,” Smollett told the publication. “I saw first -hand how the stories are built. I saw the way someone can take exactly the opposite of who you are and sell it literally.”

The actor is currently promoting his new R&B album and has recently been announced as a candidate in the reality show, “Special Forces: World’s Test Test”. The program is broadcast on Fox, the same network which canceled “Empire” in the aftermath of the Smollett saga.