'Hollywood will never UNcancel him': Jussie Smollett's career is over say crisis PR experts

Disgraced actor Jussie Smollett has seen the end of his career following Thursday's guilty verdict that he planned the fake racist and homophobic attack on himself in 2019, according to PR experts. 

Smollett, 39, was found guilty on five of six charges of disorderly conduct for lying to Chicago Police that he was attacked for being a gay black man two years ago. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

'The guilty decision by the jurors is likely a death sentence for his career,' Evan Nierman, CEO of crisis PR firm Red Banyan, told Fox News.

Howard Breuer, CEO of Newsroom PR, went further and said 'Hollywood will never uncancel' the former Empire star. 

'Hollywood is well aware that Smollett has betrayed the LGBTQ and Black communities in such a way that it might actually incur a backlash from those communities if it gives Smollett another chance,' Breuer told Fox.  

'Smollett now joins Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer and Kevin Spacey upon the Mount Rushmore of the indelibly canceled.'  

Jussie Smollett (center) was found guilty of five counts of lying to police on Thursday and faces a maximum 20 year prison sentence

Howard Breuer (left) and Evan Nierman, PR experts in crisis management, said there was no coming back for Smollett's career following the guilty verdict

Jussie Smollett sits in the back of a car with his mother, Janet, after the jury made its decision

Nierman and Howard added that Smollett's story sent a message to all that if they try to take advantage of victimhood and make false allegations, they, too, would be cancelled forever by the public. 

'His story has become a tragic cautionary tale of how to orchestrate not only a fake racist attack, but also the total destruction of your own future,' Nierman said. 

Smollett stood rigid and showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts were read out in the Chicago courtroom by Judge James Linn on Thursday. 

He then scuttled out of court with his family, refusing to answer questions, and he is yet to make a public comment. His sentencing date has not yet been set.

After Smollett left the courthouse, prosecutor Dan Webb tore him to shreds in front of the media and a crowd of people who had gathered for the verdict. 

He shamed Smollett for wasting police time and said while the Chicago Police Department was not 'perfect', it had worked tirelessly to solve his claims and took him seriously.  

'For Mr Smollett to get up and lie for hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct,' said Webb, reminding journalists that 26 police officers spent 3,000 hours probing the fake attack against Smollett in a bid to help the disgraced actor find the people who he falsely claimed attacked him.

Gloria Schmidt, the attorney for brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo - who Smollett paid to attack him - then took the mic.

'People will forgive you. It is time to cut the act. Just come clean. What I know of you, what I personally know of you, interacting with you in the court proceedings is that you are a warm person, you seem to be a generous person. You always greeted me and my staff. I personally forgive you and I know many other people will too,' she said.   

Smollett left the court without responding to questions shouted by reporters. 

'We respect the judiciary, the trial by jury process, we're obviously very disappointed,' said Nenye Uche, Smollett's lawyer, who also revealed plans to appeal. 

'We obviously respectfully disagree with the jury's verdict. The verdict is inconsistent. You cannot say that Jussie is lying and Jussie is not lying for the same exact incidents. 

'So we feel 100 per cent confident that this case will be won on appeal. Unfortunately that's not the route we wanted, but sometimes that's the route you have to take to win.' 

Asked how Smollett was, Uche replied: 'He's a human being, he's disappointed, he's holding up and he's 100 per cent confident he's going to be cleared by an appellate court.' 

Each of the level four felony counts Smollett has been convicted of carries a sentence of up to four years behind bars. Smollett has no prior convictions, but his decision to deny the charges, and present an unconvincing and ultimately unsuccessful defense to jurors means a judge is more likely to give him a harsher sentence. 

'This jury worked so hard - and for Mr Smollett to get up and lie for hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct,' said Webb, the special prosecutor. 

'We don't expect defendants to do that. Defendants have a right to go to trial, but do not have the right to go in front of a jury and lie under oath. 

'Mr Smollett would not have lost this case, had the jury not concluded that he'd lied to them.

'The fact that he came up with a completely ridiculous story to explain his misconduct did not affect the verdict.'

Webb said he did not think Smollett would be charged with perjury - lying under oath - as it was not common practice to do so for defendants who are ultimately convicted of the charges they face. 

'The resounding verdict which we received form this jury which they found Mr Smollett guilty of exactly what we said he did…that verdict was a resounding message by the jury that Mr. Smollett did exactly what we said he did,' he said.

'After hearing all the evidence, whether what Mr. Smollett was right or wrong was very controversial. Whether we won or lost the trial was not the issue, what was the issue was that what Mr. Smollett had done in this city should be aired in a public trial, all the evidence comes out, but the true facts, I thought, needed to come out.

Special Prosecutor Dan Webb tore through Smollett after the verdict was delivered, saying he wasted precious police time 

Olabinjo Osundairo spoke briefly after the verdict. He joked: 'I'm sorry I won't be using my Nigerian accent tonight. I just wanted to wish my brother luck tonight in his boxing match and Nigerian American lives matter!'

'We've now won this case. We've come away with the jury agreeing that they should have heard the case, and he's now been found guilty.'

Webb also praised the Chicago police department for untangling the web of lies spun by Smollett.

'This police department responded that they absolutely took it seriously, he was the victim of a hate crime,' he said.

'They worked so hard, for the next three weeks 26 police officers spent over 3,000 hours investigating a hate crime that did not take place, and denigrates real hate crimes.

'The work they did was extraordinary. I have told the jury that what happened here was so wrong for the CPD. Maybe the CPD is not perfect, but what they did on this case was extraordinary.' 

Gloria Schmidt, the brothers' lawyer, told reporters: 'It is time to cut the act. Just come clean.'

The trial  lasted just under two weeks and concluded on Wednesday with five hours of closing arguments, during which Smollett, whose biggest role was on Empire, was branded a 'serial liar' by the prosecution. 

He denied paying Abimbola 'Abel' Osundairo and Olabinjo 'Ola' Osundairo - two Nigerian brothers who he knew - to stage the attack to boost his celebrity profile, as police had alleged.  

His attorney failed to offer a motive for why the brothers might have lied, suggesting that it could have been because Abel was pretending not to be gay and Ola was a homophobe, or also that they wanted him to hire them as security guards so scared him into thinking that he needed them.  

Smollett didn't answer reporters' questions about whether he was nervous about the verdict, and has since been convicted of five felony counts  

Smollett was supported by his family throughout the trial, as he has been over the last three years. 

He could not explain why the brothers were there that night if it was not to attack him as they claimed he'd instructed them to do. 

Among the claims he made during his testimony was that the brothers offered to change their story and retract their allegations that he'd paid them to stage the attack if he gave them $2million. 

His attorneys said both of the brothers were 'sophisticated', seasoned criminals when in fact only one of them has a criminal record. 

Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez, a lawyer for the Osunadairo brothers, said they 'could not be more thrilled and pleased with the verdict'.

Smollett is pictured in his mugshot after he was arrested on suspicion of faking the attack, which he said was racist and homophobic 

'Humans are forgiving,' said Schmidt. 

'It is time to cut the act. Just come clean.'

She said the brothers forgave Smollett, but were considering taking civil legal action.  

Legal experts were dumbfounded that Smollett took the stand. 

They called it a 'disaster' and a desperate attempt to either confuse the jury so they'd have no choice but to acquit, or save his defense. 

It is a devastating blow for the former child actor who won millions of fans as gay black musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox TV drama.

His character was removed from the final two episodes of the series' fifth season because of the assault controversy – and he admitted in court: 'I've lost my livelihood'.

The black and gay actor created massive headlines and sparked a police manhunt after he falsely told cops he was attacked near his downtown Chicago apartment building around 2am on January 29, 2019 – leaving him with a noose around his neck.

Celebrities and advocacy groups rallied around him. Former president Donald Trump branded the attack 'horrible'.

But his story began to unravel publicly within weeks of him claiming it was two white men in dark clothes and ski masks who pounced after he went out in freezing temperatures with the intention of buying eggs.

He said he was punched by one of them who yelled 'this is MAGA country n*****' in reference to Trump's Make America Great Again slogan. A noose was put around his neck and an unknown substance poured on him, he claimed.

Smollett insisted to police at first that the attackers were white, because he saw a glimpse of skin in a gap in one of the men's ski masks. He filed a hate crime and battery report.

In fact the fake attack was carried out by Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olanbinjio Osundairo who the star had paid $3,500. And the actor changed his story, saying in court his attackers had 'pale' skin.

The brothers left for Nigeria shortly after the hoax and were arrested when they returned mid-February. They cooperated with the police, saying they were hired for the attack.