CNN anchors are apparently not very adept at keeping their personal relationships and their jobs separate.
Actor Jussie Smollett, known for his role on the hit series “Empire” and as being one of the most brazen race hoaxers in history, testified this week that CNN anchor Don Lemon tipped him off about police not believing his asinine story, The Daily Mail reported.
Lemon, who is also gay, is said to have warned Smollett back in 2019 that Chicago Police Detectives were dubious about his story that he’d been beaten in the middle of the night by two white men wearing MAGA hats.
Smollett told his trial yesterday that Lemon warned him that Chicago PD detectives had told him they didn’t believe the story.
Lemon didn’t mention it on his show last night during a minutes-long segment with reporter Omar Jiminez, who had been at the trial.
Instead, the pair discussed the day’s events almost in their entirety without mentioning the text Smollett said Lemon sent him.
Witnesses who were at the trial described what happened.
“Smollett testified during investigation he got a text from Don Lemon — saying CPD didn’t believe him (smollett talking fast here before an objection. Not verbatim.)” Fox News reporter Matt Finn said.
Smollett testified during investigation he got a text from Don Lemon — saying CPD didn’t believe him
(smollett talking fast here before an objection. Not verbatim.)
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 6, 2021
“He also says he declined to give his phone to CPD in part because earlier he’d gotten a text from Don Lemon ‘saying he’d gotten a text from CPD saying they don’t believe me.’ objections, then a sidebar,” Chicago Tribune reporter Megan Crepeau said.
“Smollett also had private photos on his phone, plus contact info for ‘my boss, everybody, my mom, my family, my siblings, there are extremely important activists in my phone, extremely important executives and actors and actresses and singers.’ So he didn’t want to turn it over,” she said.
Smollett also had private photos on his phone, plus contact info for "my boss, everybody, my mom, my family, my siblings, there are extremely important activists in my phone, extremely important executives and actors and actresses and singers." So he didn't want to turn it over.
— Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) December 6, 2021
The question is what is CNN going to do? Are the network executives going to drag their feet again, as they did for months with Chris Cuomo? Are they going to ignore it? Is Don Lemon going to be disciplined?
The host has another scandal in which a man claims he was sexually assaulted by the anchor, Fox News reported.
It’s been over two years since Dustin Hice filed a lawsuit against Lemon – who is openly gay – accusing the CNN host of sexually charged assault and battery at a bar on New York’s Long Island during the summer of 2018. The case is expected to end up in court early next year after a prolonged legal process. Meanwhile, CNN terminated Cuomo – a good friend of Lemon’s – on Saturday amid a series of sexual misconduct-related scandals of his own.
“They’re a network rife with predators and perverts,” he said to Fox News Digital. “Lemon will have to testify under oath in the near future, but it’s good to see that there’s finally some accountability happening.”
“This is who they are. They’re a predator-protecting machine, they slander and smear victims with impunity,” the accuser said.
“They’ve tried to grind me down, they’ve attempted to intimidate witnesses in my case, they’ve released confidential information about me in attempt to doxx me. They are complicit. This is who they are,” he said.
