The President backed actor Jussie Smollett when he said he was a victim of a racist and homophobic hate attack. Smollett said this incident took place on January 29, 2019. But a Chicago jury found the former Empire actor staged the entire evemt as he was guilty on five of six charges.
These charges were centred around Smollett lying to the police about the alleged incident which he reported.
In tweets that are still live despite the findings, President Biden gave his support for Mr Smollett on 30 January, 2019.
He tweeted: “What happened today to Jussie Smollett must never be tolerated in this country.
“We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts.
“We are with you, Jussie.”
This was in response to the New York Times, who tweeted: “Jussie Smollett, one of the stars of the television show “Empire,” was attacked in Chicago by 2 assailants who yelled racial and homophobic slurs.
“The incident is being investigated as “a possible hate crime,” according to the police.”
Prior to being found guilty, Smollett said “there was no hoax on my part”.
Brothers Abimbola and Ola Osundairo alleged throughout the trial that Smollett paid them $3,500 to carry out the attack in downtown Chicago.
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Furthermore, Abimbola added Smollett “had this crazy idea of having two MAGA supporters attack him”, something which the actor was hoping to share on social media.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb told the jury: “Mr. Smollett went on that witness stand, took an oath that he’s going to tell the truth [and] he made many, many false statements to you. He lied under oath to you as jurors.”
Mr Webb told the court how he believed Smollett was withholding evidence from the police – with the actor refusing to hand over his phone or DNA.
Mr Webb said: “This has nothing to do with his privacy.
“Smollett didn’t want the police to figure out he wasn’t injured that night.
He added: “No real victim would decline to give police a DNA sample.”