IMO, the key to this whole thing is the letter that was sent to the studio about a week before this incident. Granted, "controversial" celebrities are lightning rods for hate mail and such, but it seems to me much more than coincidence that he receives the over-the-top ransom-style letter with "MAGA" scrawled on it (as well as the stick figures of a guy with a noose), and then is attacked a week later by some guys screaming "This is MAGA country!"
There's only three possibilities (details notwithstanding) related to the nature of the alleged attack itself:
1) It was a random attack
2) It was a targeted attack, undoubtedly connected to the letter
3) It was a fabricated attack or an actual attack that was embellished and/or whose motive was obscured
• If it were a random attack, that means there was someone that just happened to be out on the coldest night in 2 decades, that happened to have bleach and a noose on them, just waiting for a random person to unleash their racist and homophobic hatred upon, and happened to be a fan of a show not too many racists probably watch (thereby recognizing him) or were aware of (until now), and Jussie was the unfortunate victim of said attacker. Needless to say, very bad luck to be a victim of two hate crimes in one week, both mentioning "MAGA", yet unrelated to each other.
• If it were a targeted attack, then all of the issues of scenario 1 disappear; someone that hated him so much as to first send a threatening letter (after which Jussie refused security offered to him) is probably patient enough to hunt him down, even on the coldest night in two decades, track his every move, know just when to strike out of view of any video cameras, and of course be prepared with the noose and bleach. The "Hey, you're that --- --- from Empire" line was just a misdirection, because of course he knew who he was. And then of course the "MAGA" thing is no longer a coincidence. Yet, although the attacker had an accomplice (evidently this guy's hate and determination knew no bounds), Jussie fought back and emerged with just a scratch below his eye, and his sandwich and cell phone intact, albeit with a noose that was delicately placed around his neck that he left on for 45 minutes. Granted, some criminals do weird things, such as clean the houses they break into and whatnot, but I'd be thinking that someone that was so determined to hunt him down like that, and place a noose around his neck, would have at least TRIED to inflict more damage than they did, yet fortunately for him, didn't cause much physical damage (and oh, the whole cracked rib thing turned out to be untrue). So, scenario 2 has its share of issues as well.
• I'm not saying that any single thing in and of itself is implausible, but string it all together, and to me (IMO, etc.), sure seems like scenario 3 explains it with the least amount of issues.