That’s right, Jussie Smollett is back in the news, and by now he is probably wishing he wasn’t. A year ago this month he was convicted of staging one of the most ridiculous hate crime hoaxes ever, in 2019. The judge gave him a complex sentence which would have involved him spending a mere 150 days behind bars. If you don’t think that is unduly lenient you might like to compare it with the sentence handed down to one of Australia’s most senior judges for persistently lying in similar fashion but without the possibility of inflaming racial or political violence like Smollett did.
His lawyers appealed immediately, and after only six days behind bars, he was back on the streets still protesting his innocence in spite of the absolutely overwhelming evidence against him. It has to be said that even after his conviction there were people who professed to believe him, including at least one podcast host, although it remains to be seen if anyone actually did.
At the beginning of this month, his attorneys file another appeal, this time against the actual sentence. Instead of blaming racism, they blamed the judge, something that is unlikely to go down well when the appeal is finally heard. Smollett is also arguing he was subjected to double jeopardy because of the way the case was disposed of initially. That one won’t wash; corruption vitiates this kind of special pleading, and there was corruption – be it fraud or ideological in the way the case was handled.
As well as reporting on Smollett’s appeal, the media is reporting on a new documentary about the case called Anatomy Of A Hoax whose stars are the Osundairo brothers, the two men who foolishly went along with Smollett’s mega-foolish plan. Or should that be his MAGA foolish plan? Bad as that is, the cyber world is laughing at Jussie all over again, and no one is laughing louder than puppeteer Patsy Hoolahan. Here is her eight and a half minute offering.