jussie smollett
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Of Course There's a Law & Order: SVU Episode About the Jussie Smollett Saga
There’s not a single entity that embodies the phrase “art imitates life” as effectively as Law & Order: SVU. At the top of the year, Jussie Smollett claimed he was attacked by MAGA supporters who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him in the middle of the night in Chicago. The Chicago Police Department later…
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Did Dave Chappelle Use Those Sticks & Stones to Build Himself a Lazy 'Shock Value' Box?
Dave Chappelle doesn’t really give a fuck what people think. Wait, let me reword that—he does give enough of a fuck to respond to his critics with a one-hour comedy special, but after he says his piece, you can kiss his entire black ass. And that’s that on that. In fact, he began his latest…
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Newly Appointed Special Prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett Case Will Reinvestigate the Actor’s Infamous Tale and the Saga That Followed
Talk about making a federal case out of something. A Chicago judge on Friday appointed a former U.S. attorney—a fed, y’all—as special prosecutor to investigate what one guesses should be referred to as “Jussie Smollett-gate.” Sigh. According to the Chicago Tribune, on Friday, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed Dan Webb, a former federal prosecutor,…
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Jussie Smollett Case Crusader Files Court Papers Challenging Fitness of Actor’s Lawyers
In a case that just won’t seem to die, lawyers for Jussie Smollett filed court papers Thursday to answer a charge that they are not legally allowed to practice in the state of Illinois and therefore shouldn’t be able to fight to block a judge’s ruling appointing a special prosecutor in Smollett’s case. In response…
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'I'm So Fucking Woke, I'm Ready to Go to Sleep': Lee Daniels Speaks on the Progress of LGBTQ Liberation
Fifty years. It’s been fifty years since the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969. Fifty years worth of struggles, pain, blood, sweat, tears, oppression, erasure, rebellion, progression, and much, much more. Fifty years ago, Lee Daniels was a 10-year-old boy who had just experienced an awakening—he was gay. As LGBTQ Pride Month wraps, I hopped…
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Chicago Police Release Video of Jussie Smollett Meeting Police With Noose Around His Neck
New video released by the Chicago police late Monday night shows that when officers went to investigate a possible hate crime against actor Jussie Smollett in January, the former Empire star greeted them still wearing a long piece of tangled rope around his neck. The video, taken by a police bodycam, shows one of Smollett’s…
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![The Saga Continues: Chicago Judge Orders Special Prosecutor Be Appointed in the Jussie Smollett Case [Corrected]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wfftkoymcfxvvluhqr8v-300x168.jpg)
The Saga Continues: Chicago Judge Orders Special Prosecutor Be Appointed in the Jussie Smollett Case [Corrected]
Will the Jussie Smollett case ever end? A Chicago judge Friday ordered that a special prosecutor be appointed to look into how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office decided to drop all 16 felony disorderly conduct charges against the actor over allegations he staged a homophobic and racist attack against himself in…
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Empire’s Bryshere Gray Is the Latest Castmember to Get Into a (Minor) Dustup With Chicago Law Enforcement
Is Chi-Town coming for those Empire boys? It’s a question now that a second member of the Fox TV show’s cast has apparently gotten into a little trouble with the law. According to TMZ, actor Bryshere Gray, who plays baby boy Hakeem Lyon on the show, was arrested in Chicago on a misdemeanor traffic offense—that…
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Chicago Releases Jussie Smollett 911 Tapes: ‘They Put a Noose Around His Neck’
On Wednesday night, the City of Chicago released two 911 calls from the night Jussie Smollett was allegedly attacked. The calls, which came from a person claiming to be employed by Smollett, claimed that the former Empire actor was “jumped” by some guys, who then put a noose around Smollet’s neck. The caller also complained…
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Unsealed Documents in Jussie Smollett Case Reveal Cops Were Told in Advance a Deal Was in the Works
Chicago prosecutors told police a deal with Jussie Smollett was probable about a month before all charges against him were formally dropped, according to documents found within hundreds of pages of investigative records released to the public by Chicago police Thursday. The docu-dump comes a week after a judge ordered records in Smollett’s case unsealed.…