Jussie Smollett Staged His Attack as He Was Dissatisfied with His Salary + Mugshot & Press Conference

Photo Credit: Marissa Bailey/CBS Chicago/Twitter; Charlie De Mar/CBS Chicago/Twitter

Minutes before the Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi holds a press conference to discuss Jussie Smollett’s recent arrest, his mugshot was released. The 36 year old Empire star turned himself in this morning at 5am local time away from cameras after being charged with a felony for filing a false police report last night. The attorney for the Nigerian brothers, Gloria Schmidt said she imagined Smollett was having a hard time sleeping and needed to come forward with the truth.

The press conference that later ensued showed a completely disgusted Guglielmi. He stated that he would continue to “pray for this young man who resorted to both extreme and illegal tactics to gain attention.” Regarding the notion that this type of a hate crime would occur in Chicago, he said “Chicago hosts one of the largest Pride parades in the world and we’re proud of that. We do not tolerate hate in this city.” He addressed complaints about the amount of media attention the case received saying that his department didn’t give the case any more attention than any others, but that it was the media doing that. As for the cloud of false information circulating around the case, he told the media “When you all put false information out into the universe, we then have to go and chase all of that information down. We put the same amount of resources into each investigation.” And most importantly, the attack was done because Smollie was dissatisfied with his salary which sources tell New York Magazine’s Yashar Ali that he was paid $65,000 per episode.

While he’s only been charged with a felony for filing a false police report, the number of other charges seem to be endless. Fox News’ Judge Napolitano said that if he damaged his phone, that could be a charge. The defacing he did of his face, which is also evidence could lead to another charge. If Jussie mailed the letter with the powdery substance, that’s postal fraud which is 5-10 years and also possible terrorism charges.

A bond hearing for Jussie Smollett is schedule for 1:30pm Central time. The live feed for this morning’s press conference is also below: