On Friday, Jussie Smollett canceled a meet-and-greet session ahead of his appearance at the Troubadour. The reason for the cancellation? Security issues. Which I understand – the more we find out about the attack on Jussie Smollett last week, the more convinced I am that he was absolutely targeted by two men (at least two men) who were basically stalking him and keeping tabs on his movements. Even beyond the heinous attack, it must be profoundly unsettling for Jussie to realize how they found him. Anyway, on Friday, Jussie also released his own personal statement about the attack. This came a day after his family released their statement.
“Let me start by saying that I’m OK,” Smollett began in his statement to ESSENCE. “My body is strong but my soul is stronger. More importantly I want to say thank you. The outpouring of love and support from my village has meant more than I will ever be able to truly put into words.”
“I am working with authorities and have been 100% factual and consistent on every level. Despite my frustrations and deep concern with certain inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been spread, I still believe that justice will be served. ”
“As my family stated, these types of cowardly attacks are happening to my sisters, brothers and non-gender conforming siblings daily. I am not and should not be looked upon as an isolated incident. We will talk soon and I will address all details of this horrific incident, but I need a moment to process,” he concluded. “Most importantly, during times of trauma, grief and pain, there is still a responsibility to lead with love. It’s all I know. And that can’t be kicked out of me.”
“With Love, respect & honor…Jussie.”
[Statement via Essence]
I like that Jussie and his family aren’t being quiet about how his actions or words are being misrepresented. As I said last week, the MAGA people were always going to try to muddy the waters and come up with some convoluted explanation for why he could be lying about this or that. Speaking of, TMZ did an update on some of the shady reporting they’ve done on this case, and they now say that Jussie simply didn’t want to turn over his phone (not his phone records) to the police when they “informally asked” him for it. He says he was never asked to turn over his phone records, and sources close to him say that Jussie will for-sure turn over the records to verify that he was on the phone with his manager at the time of the attack. TMZ’s sources also wanted to clarify that the assailants were NOT wearing MAGA hats, they just said something about it being “MAGA country.” As for the issue of the noose – Jussie left it on his neck to preserve the evidence.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
HOW is it that the orange POS lies lies lies on every available forum and gets pass after pass…and this man…this VICTIM of a hate crime, is being questioned relentlessly.
Literally every celebrity who claims to be ‘woke’ needs to stop collaborating with the a-holes that further this sh*t. Starting with TMZ. Cut. them. off.
YES. TMZ is pernicious, racist, misogynist trash, and celebrities need to direct their publicists to quit working with them, full stop.
Oh my gah! Why is this a thing? Why are they second-guessing him, doubting, etc.?? Why would he put his career and credibility on the line to lie about something like this?
Poor Jussie! To be treated like this after such a traumatic experience. It’s hard to fathom and harder to stomach.
The people accusing him of faking it for attention must have no clue what he’d be risking- and not even just on a personal and professional level for himself- by making something like this up. I 100% believe him. It’s good to hear that he’s doing well after going through something like that.
IS this a thing? He’s actually not being believed???? I don’t even know what to say!
Sadly Jusse, you live in MAGAMERICA.
You are black and gay. Even if you had a thousand witnesses, nothing will be done.
But I believe and stand with you.
I really have been mind blown at how many people think this is made up. Even people here, where I think The majority of comments regarding sexual assault and violence against women are non-victim blaming. Somehow with Jussie everybody lost their minds and forgot how to be compassionate.
I think this is our “new normal,” thanks to Trump. Lie to further your narrative and accuse others of lying if it doesn’t fit your narrative. Even if there’s evidence to contradict it, deny reality. It. is. insane.
There were so many Celebitchy comments last week from people who thought he had made this up – I hope they are starting to look inwards and dissecting why they were so quick to believe TMZ and the MAGA conspiracies, but not the broken and beaten black man.
Agreed.
He was absolutely the target of a racially motivated attack and I found it disgusting people are calling him a liar. He literally has nothing to gain from making this up.
Beyond that we all respond to violence differently. I don’t understand people saying they would have reacted differently when (presumably) they haven’t been in the same situation.
I wish the best for him because I can’t imagine what’s it like dealing with something so traumatic in a public sphere. I hope the people smearing him develop compassion and deconstruct their racist homophobic attitudes.
This is ridiculous?! They think he made this up? I 100% believe him!
All this doubt because he would not give up his phone? you couldn’t have my phone either, my phone has my life on it… I don’t trust that my personal information, pic, text, etc. won’t end up on TMZ. however, you can get all the records that you want sirs… good day!
Especially when it’s obvious that someone from the police department is talking to TMZ. And that this person or persons has no problem spreading misinformation or “facts” that he’s heard second or third hand and hasn’t verified. All of the information that’s come out and sounded weird or that’s been contradicting has come from sources at the police department and from TMZ “reporting.” This is something I see so often here and on other websites: people read an article in a tabloid like TMZ, where it’s clear that the writers did not actually speak with the victim and are just reporting rumors or random tidbits from “sources,” and they act like it’s a direct statement from the victim when it’s not. Then when the articles start to contradict each other, everyone starts saying “oh his story keeps changing. Why would he do this? Why didn’t he do that? This sounds fishy,” and they don’t seem to realize that what they’re reading is not a statement from the victim, but is instead second and third hand information from people tangentially related to the investigation. We hear people using these kinds of ever-changing gossip tabloid articles to discredit victims of sexual assault too. It’s frustrating how people don’t seem to read closely enough to see who the source is (or isn’t), and just assume that anything written about a victim or celebrity must be a statement coming directly from the victim or celebrity.
you mean like the person who talked to tmz first (tmz didn’t make up the story, someone contacted them) to report smollett was brutally beaten (police report says minor injuries), had a broken rib (smollett has said he didn’t), that two white men attacked him (the information given by smollett to police identifies one person as a male, no race and the second person he didn’t know the race or gender), that bleach was poured over his head (police report says “unknown chemical” on 2 articles of clothing), etc?
What makes this worse as a celebrity, the tabloids are not only going to dig into every detail of his life, but also target his family. They will not stop until they find something shady to discredit Jussie. It is all so maddening and sickening
America: land of the free to become the defendant in the case of the hate crime you suffered.
I’ve been surprised by how many people (supposedly) think he’s lying. I’ve seen comments here and on other sites. They very often say “I’m a liberal, but…” or “I’m a black wo/man, but…”, and I sincerely believe that they are lying and basically catfishing for doubt.
Absolutely. It’s so transparent!
I was blocked after a commented on Blind Gossip Twitter for questioning a blind article, which seemed like it was about Jussie. I found that very telling. It seemed like everyone wanted this to be a made up story by him. I’m not a cop and I haven’t investigated the crime. But he was the victim! Why do so many people want to make him the criminal?
Probably because the cops don´t want to take responsibility for investigating his crime. It´s been 4 months and even with video evidence and an easily searchable computer log, the police have not arrested my assailant. Also, a defense attorney once said that prosecutors don´t like to prosecute violent crimes because they aren´t as easy as drug offenses.
I’ve lost all respect for Blind Gossip since they and their commenters are very anti-Meghan, and she hasn’t even done anything!
No doubt this was a vicious – and real – attack. The question is why he of all people was targeted. The police have to look at every, single angle. But it did take some effort for the perps to track him down.
F*#$ TMZ. I hope they get sued for their biased, dangerous & lying “reporting”. Harvey Levin is such a sick example of a human. I still laugh remembering him from The People’s Court.
A big reason that MAGA people came after him is because of news reports from “sources”. Since different outlets were saying different things, it made Jussie look like a liar. Nothing came from him or the police.
Yeah–if the Chicago PD only asked him “informally” to turn his phone over, he is well within his rights as a citizen to not do that. If they wanted him to show them his call log, they could have asked for that specifically, and the fact that they did not is their own fault and their problem.
Word of advice to anyone reading this: do NOT turn over your personal effects like your phone to the police if they’re only asking you informally. Even if they tell you it’s only for 3 seconds to “verify” something. And always have a lawyer present when dealing with the police in situations like this.
Blame the victim, as usual.
-UPDATE- ABC: Jussie Smollett Incident WAS STAGED!
well, well, well Jussie has some explaining to do.