I took plenty heat around here for calling bullshit on this farce. The implausibility was clearly obvious, but this "hair on fire" age we live in it's to be expected.

Too much over the top. And Chicago is NOT MAGA country.

they would have been arrested and charged.

Maybe they knew something about it, though, and gave that info.

If they thought he was doing it as a publicity stunt, they may not have even known he was going to report it to police.

In those circumstances, they committed no crime or agreed to cooperate against Smollet.

One reason is that it uses resources that can't then be used for working on real crimes, and costing the city money. They don't let things like that go.

They are adults and knew it was a crime to report a false crime. But even if they didn't, ignorance of the law is not a defense.

For all you know, Smollet told them it was a publicity stunt and they had NO IDEA that he would report it to the police.

You assume they knew he would report it to the police. There is no basis for that assumption.

It is not illegal to hire two people to beat you up.

You believe that they necessarily believed it would be reported to the police.

The police, apparently, do not share your assumption, and do not seem to have found evidence showing they knew.

That they were so stupid as to think that a lynching attempt of a black man wouldn't be followed up by the police? I don't think anyone is that stupid.

I would think that they didn't care what the stunt was for. Just that they were going to pretend to try to lynch and strangle someone, for money. If that's what happened. Which we don't know.

If it were just a fake stunt for publicity, there would have been no need for two men to fake doing it. The guy could have just hung a rope around his neck and pretended the whole thing.

But back to my point: There simply is no evidence that the two men participated in a false crime at all. Maybe there will be. But nothing in that article supports that.

All we know is they were taken in for questioning and released. That's it.

And that they may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer.

It’s one thing to say “they should have known it would be reported as a crime” and it is quite another thing to prove that to a jury. Absent some communication among them about reporting it to the police, it would be very difficult to prove that was their intent.

to the police and Smollett didn't want him to.

Clearly they were stupid enough to not realize that water flows downhill... clearly their “victim” was plenty stupid as well.

There simply is no evidence that the two men participated in a false crime at all

You mean... apart from their own testimony to that fact?

that, unlike the OP's, had the facts that the men said they'd been paid.

As I said, the link in hte OP says no such thing at all.

to be state witnesses against the person who orchestrated it. They were pawns either way, reportedly they cooperated with the police since their arrest. The only potential crime so far would be the felony of a false report to the police, which would be solely on Smollett.

In any case, the article says nothing about what people are assuming it means. We just don't know.

It's possible that they saw something that night that peaked the interest of the police, since they were in the vicinity, but weren't involved at all in the incident. Maybe they saw two white guys leaving the area carrying rope. Or maybe they saw the guy put a rope around his own neck and walk somewhere. Who knows?

That's all I'm saying. The article gives no specifics.

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/16/sources-brothers-released-bought-rope-used-in-jussie-smollett-attack/


Jussie Smollett paid two brothers to stage an attack against him, directed them to buy items used in the alleged assault and actually rehearsed it with them, sources say.

Sources say at least one of the brothers bought the rope used in the incident at Smollett’s request. The sources also say the “Empire” actor paid for the rope, which was purchased at the Crafty Beaver Hardware Store in the Ravenswood neighborhood the weekend of Jan. 25.

The brothers, who were questioned by police this week before being released, were paid $3,500 before leaving for Nigeria and were promised an additional $500 upon their return.

Sources said one of the brothers held the rope and poured bleach while the other wore a plain red hat and yelled slurs at Smollett.

when it says the men were involved. Not the one that the OP posted.

If the sources are correct, they were paid by the guy to help the guy stage the incident.

If that's true, what an incredibly stupid thing for the guy to do. His career is over, if true. Also stupid for the two men, but if they don't have much money, I can understand it.

are granting them some leniency, in exchange for cooperation. Smollett is the one they really want.

Reporting a false crime to the police is a class 4 felony in Illinois. Simply lying to the local police is not a crime in most places. Hypothetically Smollett will be the one on the hook for falsely reporting a crime.

If they were pawns in the scheme they will cut a deal to testify against him obviously.

And likely did not know (or it can’t be proven) that Smollet planned to involve the police.

They may have known and decided to cooperate.

Police sources claim Smollett paid the brothers to fake the attack.

No normal person would ever do something like this. He's a lunatic.

That's a class 4 felony, sentence of 1-3 years in State prison.

He's proven there are no boundaries (or border walls) to his deception so he should fit right in!

provide proof Smollett lied apart from the alleged abuser's claims.

Mind you they appear to have been let go without bail.

Michael Cohen’s attorney, no less.

Smollett's isn't.

And a poor actor too.