*Jussie Smollett hit up Sway‘s SiriusXM show this week to talk about his high-profile hate crime case in Chicago. The disgraced actor feels he got screwed in court and insists he’s “not a piece of s–t.”
In March, the former “Empire” star was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months probation after being convicted last year of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in Chicago in January 2019, and then lying to police about it.
After the sentence was handed down, Smollett exploded in the courtroom, loudly proclaiming his innocence and suggesting something might happen to him in county jail by repeatedly making clear that he is “not suicidal.”
During the sentencing hearing, Judge James Linn chastised and shamed Smollett, called him a liar, and accused him of committing purgery during his own testimony. The judge also noted that Smollett’s ego and narcissism led to him allegedly plotting the homophobic hate crime.
READ MORE: Jussie Smollett Gets 150 Days in Jail – Then LOUDLY Proclaims He’s ‘Not Suicidal!’ | WATCH
Smollett was released from a Cook County Jail in March after serving a six-day sentence. He addressed the trial on “Sway in the Morning”, claiming he did not lie about the attack.
“If I had done this, I’d be a piece of s–t. And I don’t think that’s really questionable,” Smollett said in the episode aired on Monday, Page Six reports.
“If I had done something like this, it would mean that I stuck my fist in the pain of black African Americans in this country for over 400 years,” he told Sway.
“It would mean that I stuck my fist in the fears of the LGBTQ community all over the world. I am not that motherf—er. Never have been. Don’t need to be,” he added.
Smollett said he used his short stint in jail to “reset and regain clarity” by fasting.
“I was not fasting for lent. I was fasting because that’s what we do in my family, we fast for clarity,” he said, adding he’s never “been as clear as I was for those six and a half days.”
Smollett also confirmed that he was held in a psych ward during his jail stay in Chicago.
“Lord knows I wanted to get out. I was in a f–ing psych ward … I was sleeping on a restraint bed but I wasn’t restrained,” he said.
“I have to keep it real, everybody inside was very kind and when I left, I thanked them all. I said, ‘I don’t know what y’all think either way, but the fact that you didn’t let me know what you think either way and you just showed me respect I’m grateful for.’”
He went on to say of his brief stint in jail…“There’s something about being in there and you have no choice but to surrender yourself. Not to the system, not to a judge or a bunch of old white men ironically explaining to you about the history of hate crimes, but you’re surrendering to yourself,” he said. “You’re just left there with you, your thoughts, and these walls.”
“I believe that the prison system needs to be dismantled,” he added.
Scroll up to watch his interview with Sway via the YouTube clip above.
