
Jussie Smollett scheduled to be sentenced for hate crime hoax
CNN
Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett is scheduled to be sentenced in a Chicago court Thursday after being convicted last year of staging a fake hate crime -- though his attorneys will first try to persuade a judge to set aside the guilty verdict.
Smollett, 39, was found guilty in December on five counts of felony disorderly conduct for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019.
At a hearing for Smollett's sentencing Thursday afternoon, attorneys are first expected to argue before Judge James Linn over the actor's request to toss the verdict or grant him a new trial.

The White House is making clear it views President Donald Trump’s Friday Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an overwhelming win underscoring Trump’s “America First” leadership, dispatching top officials and allies on the airwaves to amplify Trump’s handling of the situation even as European leaders are putting on a key show of force of unity for Ukraine and its leader.