Jussie Smollett: Daily Show host Trevor Noah weighs in on Empire actor's case

Trevor Noah and The Daily Show have offered their take on the ongoing case involving Jussie Smollett and his claim that he was assaulted in a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago.

The Empire star was arrested by the Chicago Police Department earlier this week on charges of faking a police report, after being accused of orchestrating a fake attack on himself because he was reportedly unhappy with his salary.

Smollett and his legal team have continued to state his innocence and deny all of the charges against him.

Noah posted a five-minute video on Thursday evening (21 February) where he shared his thoughts on the still-unfolding case.

"The whole world knows Jussie's name, and for all the wrong reasons," he began, before showing several news clips from early reports on the case.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked. "This dude may have faked a hate crime just to get a raise? What was he thinking?"

He went onto consider: "You get your ass beat, and then go to your boss and say, 'Hey, can I get another million dollars? I need to get some band-aids."

"This is a petty reason to pull off such a major crime," he added. "Imagine if we found out that Tupac faked his own death just to get out of a Blockbuster late fee? That would be insane."

The late night TV host also looked at how the Chicago Police have been investigating the case, including their discovery of "incriminating" evidence that Smollett and the two men involved in the "attack" – brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo – spoke an hour before the alleged attack.

"When this started out, it was a story about people who hated Jussie Smollett because he was black and gay," Noah said. "But now, people hate him because he's an asshole. In other words, they're judging him on the content of his character. And that, my friends, is progress."