Jussie Smollett given 150 days in jail and $120,000 fine for staging hate crime

American actor was convicted of lying to police about racist and homophobic attack he staged

Jussie Smollett stands at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago during his sentencing. EPA

American actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 30 months of probation on Thursday, with the first 150 days in jail for lying to Chicago police about a racist and homophobic attack he staged himself.

"You’re just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that’s shameful,” said Judge James Linn of Cook County in Chicago.

He was also ordered to pay ordered to pay $120,000 restitution for lying to police.

Smollett's request to dismiss the conviction was denied, and he did not speak before the sentencing.

The verdict came after a trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that Smollett had planned the attack and hired two men he knew from his work on the show Empire to carry it out.

He arrived at the Cook County Courthouse Thursday afternoon, flanked by family members and his lawyers.

Smollett had faced up to three years in prison for each of his five felony convictions for disorderly conduct — the charge filed for lying to police. He was acquitted on a sixth count.

The sheer size and scope of the police investigation was a major part of the trial and is key in a $130,000 pending lawsuit that the city filed against Smollett to recover the cost of police overtime.

Thursday’s sentencing could be the final chapter in a criminal case, subject to an appeal, that made international headlines.

Smollett, who is black and gay, reported to police that two men wearing ski masks had beaten him and hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him on a dark Chicago street.

In December, hr was convicted in a trial that included evidence from two brothers who told jurors Smollett paid them to carry out the attack, gave them money for ski masks and rope and instructed them to fashion the rope into a noose.

Prosecutors said he told them what racist and homophobic slurs to shout and to yell that Smollett was in “Maga Country” — a reference to the campaign slogan of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, "Make America Great Again".

Smollett, who knew the men from his work on the TV show Empire, which was filmed in Chicago, said that he did not recognise them and did not know they were the men attacking him.