Chicago Police Chief Jussie Stmollett, who was accused of lying to police in 2019, has apologized for his actions and won’t be pursuing criminal charges.
Eddie Johnson, who was the head of the police force at the time Smollett’s hoax attack took place, was fired. After he was discovered drunk behind the wheel of his patrol car and it became clear that he had had an affair with female staff members, he has been fired from the force for misconduct.
Smollett claimed to the police and the rest of the world that two Trump supporters jumped him on his way back from Subway on the coldest night in 2017. He was out purchasing a sandwich when the attack occurred. Smollett was found guilty of staging an attack on his career to help him get ahead, and he paid Ola Osundairo (brother) to execute it.
Johnson was the one who was most vocal in shaming Smollett’s lies about January 2019’s fake attack. He was brave enough to arrest the actor, despite him saying that the police were only after him as a black man.
Johnson, another black man, appeared on NewsNation’s Morning in America on Friday to talk about the verdict – Smollett was found guilty on five counts of lying to police. Smollett would have been unable to face a criminal prosecution or charge him even if he had not just apologized for it.
“Let me speak for myself and the Mayor. [Rahm]Emanuel protested at that time. [he]It has stained our city. You put all your manpower into this, but I want people understand. It wasn’t the worst crime of the century. He didn’t murder anyone. He did not blow up any buildings.
‘We would have been more than happy with just an apology at the end of all that we uncovered but for some reason, he just wanted to keep going down this road that he was actually a victim,’ he told host Adrienne Bankert on Morning in America.
Eddie Johnson, former chief superintendent of Chicago Police Department, appeared on Morning in America (NewsNtion)
Johnson claimed that the first thing Johnson noticed was the fact that Smollett, who he claims had attacked him, kept the noose around Smollett’s neck. On the bodycam footage of police officers, he is seen back in his apartment that night and showing the officer the noose. Johnson replied, “I don’t think that there are any black Americans in America who have a noose around the neck. I wouldn’t take it off immediately.”
Johnson claimed that he was forced to convince Chicago PD police officers not to treat Smollett suspect but as a victim.
After seeing the footage of Smollett being interrogated in his apartment, he was suspicious immediately, he claimed.
‘I have to be honest, when I first saw the video of him in his apartment with the noose around his neck I was concerned because I don’t think there’s many black people in America with a noose around their neck and wouldn’t immediately take it off.
“I must be truthful, I was worried when I saw him with his noose wrapped around his neck. I don’t believe there are many Americans with nooses around their necks.
“And the manner he handled it so casually gave me cause for concern. I wouldn’t let him be called an offender by the police department until there was overwhelming evidence. He was not called an offender by the department for quite some time.
‘To use a symbol like a noose to promote yourself is just unconscionable to me.
‘The city of Chicago, we’d been making so much progress at that time in terms of violent crime, it just hurt me that a black person would use a black symbol like that and create a crime where no crime occurred. It was difficult. “It was difficult,” he stated.
Johnson claimed that Johnson was not only suspicious of Smollett’s noose (which prosecutors claim Smollett secured for effect), but also that Johnson believed Johnson had doubted Johnson would have been able to save his Subway tuna sandwich and take it with him home, intact, after apparently being beaten by thugs.
Looking back at it, that noose part but the thing that really struck us strangely was the fact I had been a police officer for about 30 or 31 of these years. I’d been in the detective division working homicides, a lot. What really struck us all was the fact that he got attacked on the coldest night of the year during a polar vortex. It was freezing. No one was there.
‘But I tell you one thing that really tipped us off that told us there was a problem… if somebody gets jumped like that – let me back up a bit. Okay, he was fine going to Subway at two in morning for a sandwich.
Smollett can be seen in the surveillance camera footage of his apartment building as he leaves his building (right), and then leaving court yesterday, after he was found guilty
Johnson famously tore Smollett apart in this 2019 press conference on February 21, 2019, where he revealed how the actor had lied.
Johnson was interviewed by NewsNation, Friday morning. Johnson said that he would have forgiven Smollett if he had admitted to lying.
‘He comes back, gets attacked in a hate crime supposed hate crime, and during all this scuffle, they poured bleach on him, when he got up and went into his apartment building, he got up and still had that Subway sandwich with him. This doesn’t occur.
Jussie Mollett in his mugshot, February 21, 2019
“When attacked like that people usually abandon their belongings until they can be returned to the police because they are afraid.
“This man had the sandwich in his hands and had not touched it.” This was an important tipping point that we knew something wasn’t right,’ he stated.
Johnson said that Johnson’still made it his point to treat Smollett as a victim’ until the evidence was too overwhelming.
‘As the days went on and we started recovering that video, it became fairly obvious that something was amiss.
‘When we found out about the Osundairo brothers, they had fled the country at the time, they came back to Chicago. It was my policy not to let detectives know that. We wanted them back in Chicago.
‘When we arrested them and brought them in, when I saw the videos of their statements, then I could no longer protect [Smollett]He replied, ”
Johnson slapped Smollett with a hammer on February 20, 2019 for using police resources to waste – $100,000, 26 full-time cops.
It was “painful” that he used symbolism from a noose in order to boost his profile. He also said that Smollett was lying beyond all doubt.
Responding, the actor said that he had never trusted Chicago Police Department. That’s why he was charged with lying.
Although he maintains his innocence his lawyer indicated to him that he will file an appeal. Smollett has yet to be sentenced.
The sentence is up to 20 years.