Jussie Smollett faked a racist, homophobic attack upon his person on January 29, 2019 that was obviously false from the outset.  It did not take the beleaguered Chicago police long to get to the truth thanks to the sheer stupidity of Smollett and his two accomplices.  The three men could be seen on surveillance video numerous times as they went about their plan.  His two pals quickly gave up their side of the story; Smollett had hired them to fake a lynching (they are on video buying the rope), instructed them to pour bleach on him and to sort of punch him in the face.  He sustained very little discernible physical damage.

Hardly anyone believed his story, but, predictably, the usual suspects in Congress and among the leftist public jumped on board to decry our racist, homophobic nation.  Smollett sweetened the social justice pot by claiming that his attackers were white, wearing MAGA hats at 2:00 A.M. in below-20-degree weather in a very nice neighborhood.  In particular, there were Cory Booker and Kamala Harris; the two of them were sponsoring an anti-lynching bill, even though lynching has effectively been illegal in America for at least a hundred years.  Harris's bill got a vote on February 14 and passed.  Hmmm.

Smollett is an actor, black and gay, and was then appearing on the television show Empire.  He comes from a radical activist family so is of course friends with the Obamas and their crowd.  Michelle's former chief of staff, Tina Tchen, contacted Chicago A.G. Kim Foxx to intervene on Smollett's behalf.  (Foxx claims that Kamala Harris is her mentor.)  Foxx apparently tried to get the local FBI to take over the case; this was Tchen's suggestion.  Clearly, they both thought the local FBI would do Smollett's bidding.

But the evidence was overwhelming.  Smollett was provably as guilty as guilty can be.  This was a slam-dunk case.  Smollett was charged with sixteen felony counts and released for the ten thousand dollars cash of the hundred-thousand-dollar bail.  Getting to that point had taken hundreds of man-hours from the Chicago police.

Then, miracle of miracles, Smollett was suddenly cleared of the crimes, his record both sealed and expunged.  Foxx, who had recused herself, in fact had not done so officially.  That he was cleared has rocked Chicago, long considered the most corrupt city in America.  This is such a breach of the law that no one but a few of Smollett's actor and writer friends supports this turn of events.  He will not be returning to his acting job on Empire — so say his producers (maybe).  And the man is so arrogant that he is demanding apologies from the police and the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who is hardly an example of truth, honor, and the American way.  The mayor is sending Smollett a bill for $130K, a fraction of the cost to the city of the hoax.

The question is why.  Why did Smollett attempt such a stupid deception?  At first, the rumor was that he wanted to raise his profile in order to get more money from the Empire producers.  Not smart — raise your profile by pretending to be a victim.  But then victimhood is the favored status of leftists; it is practically a college course on any given campus in the country.  Victimology 101: How to exploit your minority status!

Did Smollett think of this hustle on his own, or was he put up to it?  He does not impress as particularly intelligent, so it is not much of a leap to wonder.  Did whoever conceived of this dumb plot also get him out of the serious legal jeopardy in which he then found himself?  What if Kamala Harris, pal of Kim Foxx and Smollett, invented the plan to boost support for her anti-lynching bill?  Smollett delights in the scam and incriminates the two pals he paid to participate.  They perform the show like three ten-years-olds but get caught because the plan was so poorly executed.

Are there emails, texts?  Bet there are.

Perhaps someone is so scared that he called in the big guns: the Obamas.  Or perhaps Smollett thinks he has leverage over one or more of the principals involved in the plot.  Did he threaten someone with revealing what he knows?

Either way, this "whitewash of justice" is another injurious mark on the city of Chicago.  As Roger Simon wrote, Smollett will forever have a cloud over his head as the symbol of unequal justice.  The rich do enjoy the privilege their wealth and fame yield, as the college admissions scam has proven.

Someone who knows the whole truth of this despicable crime will come forward.  Someone will leak the truth of it all.  The question is, how long will it take, and who will it be?

Image: Dominick D via Flickr.