If you’re confused about the Jussie Smollett case, trust me you’re not the only one. First, we heard that Jussie was physically attacked by two men who were wearing “MAGA” hats. They supposedly yelled racist and homophobic slurs and things like “This is MAGA country.” Next, we learned that this was not true at all and in fact, there was no evidence of this being a hate crime. It was later revealed that one of the men was an extra on the set of ~Empire~ and the other was a personal trainer that Jessie hired.
The Chicago Police seem to think that Jussie did this to create attention around his name as he was dissatisfied with his current salary. Jussie was officially charged with disorderly conduct for filing a fake police report, and he was released on bail for $100,000.
So yes, Jussie staged a whole attack -even sent himself a death threat- just for an increase in salary.