On December 9, 2021, the jury in the criminal trial of Jussie Smollett, former star of the TV series Empire, returned guilty verdicts in five of the six counts that he had been charged with. On January 29, 2019, Smollett reported to police that he had been attacked by two white males as one punched him in the face while another poured bleach on him and put a noose around his neck. Within weeks, prosecutors approved disorderly conduct charges for having filed false reports. Spurred on by international attention and the condemnation of the then Democrat nominees for President and Vice President, Chicago Police spent an estimated 3,000 hours in an attempt to find the individuals who had alledgedly perpetrated the attack. In March 2019, after outside political pressure, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, the state's attorney's office dropped the charges. Ultimately, in February 2021, new charges were filed against Smollett.
