Smollett, who is black and gay and plays a gay character on Empire, says he received a letter at the Chicago studios where the show is filmed. Inside the letter — according to the actor — were a then-unknown powder, a drawing of a stick figure hanging from a tree, and cutout 
letters stating: "Smollett Jussie you will die black f***."
"The return address said in big red, you know, like, caps: MAGA," the actor later explained in an interview with ABC News, referencing an abbreviation of President Trump's campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.
"The return address said in big red, you know, like, caps: MAGA," the actor later explained in an interview with ABC News, referencing an abbreviation of President Trump's campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.
Smollett tells police that he was brutally assaulted overnight in downtown Chicago. In his report, he says two individuals yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him, beat him up, poured a chemical on him, and left him with a rope wrapped around his neck.
https://twitter.com/gma/status/1110869587405361152
Police later say the pair, identified as brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, were returning from a two-week trip abroad. Police also explain that the brothers were previously linked with Empire.
That chat with Don Lemon on CNN was the first in what would become a chain of nationally broadcast interviews Wallace gave through Wednesday. Despite the driver's repetition of the facts that explain why and how he was dragged into a hate crime-related controversy that was not
what it appeared to be, many are still calling the incident a hoax and assigning blame to Wallace.
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