“I Don’t Want to Have a Felony on My Record for Something I Didn’t Do” • Hollywood Unlocked

Jussie Smollett continues to maintain that he is an innocent man. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight’s Nischelle Turner, Jussie Smollett shares what he’s currently fighting for after returning to the public eye and continuing his career in entertainment.

As we previously reported, a few years ago, Smollett got arrested and sentenced because he was caught up in a wild scheme. Back in 2019, he claimed he was attacked in Chicago by two guys who were supposedly shouting racist and homophobic slurs. But as the investigation rolled on, they ended up accusing him of staging the whole thing to get attention and boost his career. The police accused him of hiring some dudes to ultimately help him fake the whole attack.

In 2022, he was convicted for his actions and got hit with some serious time—he ended up with a sentence of about 150 days in jail plus probation and fines. However, he spent just six days in jail. The whole situation was messy and had a lot of people talking, especially since it raised issues about real hate crimes and the trust in those reporting them. However, Smollett is forever sticking to his side of the story and now he’s sharing what he’s currently fighting for:

“I want to have all of these things in my life, and I don’t want to have a felony on my record for something that I didn’t do,” Smollett said in the new interview. “That’s what we’re fighting for. I know that on the surface it probably seems like why doesn’t he just serve the time, why doesn’t he just let this go? It would be easier if I had in fact done this to say that I did it. I wouldn’t have spent almost $3 million of my own money. I wouldn’t have had a trial.”

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Smollett has since appealed that conviction, with the case currently being reviewed by the Illinois Supreme Court.

“But as a human being and as a man, as a Black man and as an openly gay Black man, I have a problem with letting them win on something they shouldn’t be able to,” Smollett continued. “I’m a grown man and something happened. I can’t tell exactly what did happen, but I can tell you what did not happen. That’s what I have to sit on. No matter how much people are yelling in my face, saying ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I don’t want them to believe that, but if that is what they believe, that’s on you.”

Despite all that has happened, Smollett has been given a second chance in Hollywood. The Lost Holliday premieres in select AMC Theatres locations on Sept. 27.

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