Jussie Smollett, the former “Empire” actor accused of faking a racist and homophobic attack on himself, maintains his innocence in an interview with former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill on Wednesday, his first in about two years.
“What happened in these last two years, it has humbled me in a way that nobody could possibly understand,” Smollett said in the interview, which was posted on Hill’s Instagram. “Out of all these jokers in this entire situation, I am the only human being who has not changed his story one time.”
Hill went on to ask Smollett what was the biggest lie he heard about himself following the alleged incident.
“Well, I mean that I did a hoax, obviously,” Smollett said. “I am a human being like everybody else... I ingest the media, I read the headlines, and all that type of stuff. I’ve been guilty of taking things at face value as well. But when you see that happening, and they talking about you, and you know – you know that it’s not true – somehow it becomes different.”
He added that a story was “intentionally created” to cast doubt on him.
“It was set up to make it seem like I was lying about something or everything,” Smollett said.
He said later in the interview: “There would be no reason for me to do something like this. There would be no reason for me to do something foolish... and I do think that if you look at all of the things that were happening for me, and then for all of the opportunities and all of the money... whatever, that I have lost at this point, if in fact what they said was true, the smart thing to do would be to admit that. At least there would be a place to work back from. This is bulls—t. It’s bulls—t.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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