Jussie Smollett Found Guilty of Lying to Police in Faking a Hate Crime

Mr. Smollett showed little reaction as the verdicts were read.

The jury deliberated for about nine hours over two days before rendering its verdict.

The parties set a date of Jan. 27 to discuss a hearing on post-trial motions.

The judge said Mr. Smollett was free to leave on his current bond and that he would need to come to Chicago “one more time” if the post-trial motions are denied and the case gets to a sentencing.

He said that if Mr. Smollett didn’t show up in person for sentencing he would be facing one to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

Mr. Smollett was the star of the hit show “Empire” when he told police that two men had used racist, antigay language and a pro-Trump slogan before hitting and kicking him and placing a noose around his neck around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019.

Two brothers, who were originally arrested as suspects in the case, became the prosecution’s star witnesses. Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo testified last week that they believed a $3,500 payment from Mr. Smollett covered diet and fitness training and the staging of a fake hate crime. They said the motive for the hoax was that the producers of “Empire” weren’t taking seriously enough a piece of hate mail Mr. Smollett had received about a week before the attack.

Dan Webb,

the special prosecutor, said Mr. Smollett had lied to police and the jury, compounding his wrongdoing. “I believe it’s a complete vindication of the Chicago Police Department and all the work that they did,” he said.

Each of the six counts filed against Mr. Smollett was tied to a specific time he allegedly lied to a police officer. Count six charged Mr. Smollett with falsely reporting that he was the victim of aggravated battery to an officer on Feb. 14, 2019. Mr. Webb said he didn’t want to speculate as to why the jury had found Mr. Smollett not guilty on count six. He said the other charges related to lies he had told police on the day of the crime and count six was two weeks later.

An attorney for Mr. Smollett said they would appeal. “We remain confident that on appeal he’s going to be cleared of all accusations, all charges,” said Nenye Uche, Mr. Smollett’s lead attorney. “This is an inconsistent verdict. Jussie was not accused of two different things. He was charged multiple times for one incident. The jury cannot say he was guilty of lying and not guilty of lying.”

A lawyer representing the Osundairo brothers said they couldn’t be more pleased and thrilled with the verdict.

Mr. Smollett left the courthouse without commenting to the assembled media.

Mr. Smollett had taken the stand in his own defense, saying that he was happy with the studio and that if anything it was taking the hate mail too seriously by assigning him security that he didn’t want. He also said that he didn’t want to call police about the alleged attack because it would ruin his chances to be taken seriously in future roles playing sports figures or a comic-book hero.

He was originally charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police, but the case was dropped when he agreed to surrender his bail money and do community service.

But a special prosecutor was later named and presented evidence before a grand jury that charged Mr. Smollett with six counts of disorderly conduct. He also faces a civil lawsuit brought by the city of Chicago over overtime it paid detectives working on the case.

Mr. Smollett was fired from “Empire” and said during his testimony that he had failed to find work since. “I’ve lost my livelihood,” he said.

Write to Joe Barrett at joseph.barrett@wsj.com and Ben Kesling at benjamin.kesling@wsj.com