The alleged threats happened the day after the former Empire star checked into jail on Thursday to serve his 150-day sentence for staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself in Chicago back in 2019, local news station WFLD-TV reported. This comes as the actor continues to insist his innocence, saying he was truly a victim of a hate crime.
Newsweek reported earlier Monday that his brother Jocqui Smollett stated on his social media that there is no concrete evidence that the attack was staged.
According to the statement from Smollett’s legal team, the sibling who is Smollett’s emergency contact “started being bombarded with phone threats about harm that would be done to Jussie in the jail.” The alleged threat, which used a racial slur and graphically described sexual violence that other inmates at the Cook County Jail would inflict upon Smollett, came from an unidentified male calling from an unlisted number, WFLD reported.
In December 2021, the 39-year-old actor was convicted on five of the six disorderly conduct charges he faced for staging the attack. In 2019, Smollett claimed two men had tied a noose around his neck and poured a substance believed to be bleach on him while using racist and homophobic slurs. However, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo later said Smollett paid them $3,500 to pose as his attackers.
In addition to jail time, the actor was sentenced to 30 months of felony probation without travel restrictions. He was also ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution to the city of Chicago and a $25,000 fine.
“You’ve destroyed your life as you knew it, and there’s nothing that any sentencing judge can do to you that could compare to the damage that you’ve already caused to yourself,” Judge James Linn said in his comments at Smollett’s sentencing.
In his Instagram statement, Jocqui said the Osundairo brothers’ testimony should not be enough to convict his brother, calling it “‘he said, she said,’ not litigation.”
“Are you not terrified of the precedent this now sets?” he asked. “That means you could hang out with some folks, one of them being your friend and then all it takes is those two individuals saying you did something for you to be convicted guilty of a crime!!! Wild!!!”
Smollett’s family members said that the actor has been placed in the Cook County Jail’s psych ward, with paperwork on his cell saying he is “at risk of self-harm,” according to WFLD. However, Smollett had a courtroom outburst after his sentencing in which he again insisted on his innocence and said, “I am not suicidal.”
“If anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself, and you must all know that,” he said.
Smollett’s attorney did not immediately respond to Newsweek’s request for comment.
Update 03/14/22 2:05 p.m. ET: This story was updated to add more information.
