Jussie Smollett has doubled down on maintaining his innocence in a new song, "Thank You God," which was released just over a month after he was sentenced to 150 days in jail for faking a hate crime in 2019.
The former "Empire" actor released the song Friday and posted a snippet on Instagram. In the track, Smollett raps about the case, saying, "You think I'm stupid enough to kill my reputation? Just to simply look like a victim, like it's something fun ... y’all better look at someone else, you've got the wrong one."
Captioning the snippet, Smollett wrote that he will be donating all profits generated from the song to several nonprofit charity organizations, including The Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Illinois Innocence Project, and Secure the Bag Safety.
Smollett, who is Black and openly gay, was convicted in December on five of six charges of staging a 2019 attack that made it look as if a racist, homophobic hate crime was committed against him. In addition to his jail sentencing, Smollett was ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution as part of his sentence, according to Billboard, which noted that he was released from jail last month after six days behind bars during the appeal process, which wouldn't be completed before Smollett had served his full sentence.
After his sentencing, Smollett stood and said to the judge that he was innocent.
"I am innocent, and I am not suicidal," he added, suggesting that "if anything happens" in jail, he did not take his own life, according to USA Today.
"If I did this, then it means I stuck my fist in the fears of Black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community," Smollett said. "Your honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I did not do this.”
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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