Clever? Clever as a felony.

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Yes, he is either extremely stupid or very clever.
Consider that you don't earn 100k per episode by being extremely stupid, I think he is being clever...like a game of chess.

If you think about it, what is the very worst punishment that a low-level non-violent felon could get? Especially a high paid tv personality.
I'm guessing he will get a slap on the wrist and maybe do some public service. But look at how much face time he is getting in return.
The old adage is always true...."any publicity is good publicity"

There are a broad array of federal criminal statutes that protect the U.S. mail, including mailing threatening
communications, mailing injurious articles, and even a federal “hoax” statute.

From my reading, the felony disorderly conduct for filing the false report and staging the very public hoax is 1-3 years in prison potentially.

Then there's the federal possibilities. He sent a letter to the studio with white power in it that turned out to be aspirin.

The FBI and USPS are actually investigating possible terrorism charged for that stunt.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-charges-against-jussie-smollett-are-considered-felony-n974031

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Yes, he is either extremely stupid or very clever.
Consider that you don't earn 100k per episode by being extremely stupid, I think he is being clever...like a game of chess.

If you think about it, what is the very worst punishment that a low-level non-violent felon could get? Especially a high paid tv personality.
I'm guessing he will get a slap on the wrist and maybe do some public service. But look at how much face time he is getting in return.
The old adage is always true...."any publicity is good publicity"

So a celebrity who makes a lot of money can’t be extremely stupid? While maybe Smollett isn’t extremely stupid, but I am pretty sure this isn’t playing out how he thought nor is he playing some sort of elaborate long game. Playing chess? He sacrificed his queen to a couple of Nigerian pawns and the gambit failed. Miserably. And I’m enjoying seeing it blow up in his face.

Sometimes it's not about intelligence.  Narcissism, arrogance, living in a make-believe career, blinding anger ..... lots of conditions can combine to guide people who are otherwise relatively smart to make really stupid decisions.

Then there are the possible outside influencers: Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, the entire cast of The View, the Main Stream Media, all his Liberal/Gay buddies buying the lies that Trump hates Gays, etc, etc.

People will forget about this scam but will remember the fake details of it.
MAGA anti-gay Trump supporters attacked a gay actor.

And supposedly a somewhat influential and central character in the series that many in the LGBT community saw as their champion and role model. I have never watched an episode, but had read that from more than a few sources.

Just watched the TNT bit with Barkley again and just saw the part where they wrote a check to “Mugger” for $3500 and for “Mugging supplies”. 

TMZ is now reporting that the payment was for personal training, which the 2 brothers do.

TMZ is now reporting that the payment was for personal training, which the 2 brothers do.

If the 2 brothers said the payment was for a hoax, you have to ask, "why would they lie?"

I mean, if the money was not for the attack, why say it was?  Are they framing him? 

They also said he gave them a $100 bill to pay for the items they bought for the attack -- masks, jackets, hats, clothesline, bleach, etc.

Makes no sense.  Jussie has to be lying -- which he has a history of doing (gave police his brother's ID when arrested for DUI).

I agree with you and think smollet is full of shit.  If they were getting paid that much to train him, they had better access to him.  Why beat him up in public?