The police have already said he did it for money, so what exactly are you looking for beyond that? Some deeper psychological motive? If so, I guess we could point to the fact that Smollett was a child star, and child stars are often pretty messed up.

Personally, this won’t change my evaluation of future claims about hate crimes. False accusations happen, but they are incredibly rare. The only difference between this and other false accusations is that this one got covered nationally. But that’s not a rational basis for changing one’s responses.

Publicity.

As of today, he is admitting he did it for money and fame, because his career was tanking.

Self-promotion

@KNOWITALL Is he actually admitting it? I hadn’t heard that.

I think he was trying to capitalize on “victimhood”. I read an article that said as such, that for an actor, a way to become more notable and interesting is to become a victim of a hate crime. That will get you more “clout” that achievements in entertainment.

This won’t change my opinion on future claims of hate crimes as I’m already a skeptical person by nature. They simply need to be evaluated on an individual basis and I hope that people get carried away before all the facts are out.

I’ll let his jury decide that.

If he did fake a hate crime as indicated then I think he should be charged with a hate crime and sentenced accordingly.

Smollett has now been charged with filing a false police report. Incredibly stupid. I don’t know what he hoped to gain.

@Desmothenes I read a lot of articles this morning and now I can’t find it, sorry. The two brothers definately admitted they were paid and it was all staged however. Pretty crazy deal.

Because he’s a first class prick.

I suspect he was worried about his role on Empire. I think he felt that if he had something like a hate crime attack they wouldn’t get rid of his character. There was a letter sent to the studio that is doing Empire threatening him. It got very little reaction. That was when this scam was planned. The FBI is looking now to see if he sent that letter as well.

https://lawofficer.com/news/fbi-investigating-empire-star-in-possible-role-in-sending-threatening-letter/

I don’t watch the show and never heard of him before this happened. I don’t feel sorry for him and I hope he is punished. However, I do feel like he probably had no idea of the ramifications of the crime, probably didn’t think it through and didn’t realize that the whole thing would blow up like it did. Probably totally clueless, in his own little world, looking for fame and fortune and now will be jobless with huge legal bills, and maybe imprisoned. Sorry sorry ass.

^^Agree. He’s a shallow minded desperate fool imo.

Probably thought he was so fabulous and deserving of way more than the 65k he was getting per episode, and stopped at nothing to get what, in his mind, he deserved.