Jussie Smollett testifies that he did drugs, 'made out' with Osundairo sibling: LIVE UPDATES
Jussie Smollett testified before the country broke for lunch that his relationship with Bola Osundairo was in fact sexual in nature. He began his testimony by recounting his humble upbringing and how close he is to his family. He also talked about the process with which he got his job on “Empire” and laid out that he began making $28,000 per episode in Season 1 before ultimately getting $100,000 by Season 5.
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The former “Empire” actor’s trial wrapped for the day on Monday as he was being cross-examined by special prosecutor Dan Webb, who had grilled Smollett about his alleged injuries and his unwillingness to provide his DNA to investigators following the alleged attack.
During his bombshell testimony, Smollett said he took umbrage with Chicago police supposedly indicating Smollett told them his attackers were donning red MAGA hats.
Webb: Do you remember telling police you had gotten a phone call three days earlier from someone using racial and homophobic slurs…Detective Murray asked if she could have your cellphone so she could see who called you and maybe solve the crime?
Smollett: I don’t recall, I don’t remember her specifically saying it during the ride along. I called Detective Murray the next day, Jan 30th because I was angry that police said I told them the attackers were wearing MAGA hats, but I never said that.
Webb: Were you concerned that police would see (on your phone) all the substantial communication with Bola Osundairo because they would learn about the hate crime hoax that was planned?
Smollett: There was no hate crime hoax from my standpoint.
Special prosecutor Webb asked Smollett if he recalls the Northwestern doctor – who was a witness called by Smollett’s own attorney – said Smollett had no injuries.
"I have a scar under my eye that has not healed… my injuries were real," Smollett said, according to Fox News’ Matt Finn. "I remember him saying the facial injuries were real…"
Webb then asked Smollett if he refused to give his DNA when asked by Chicago police, to which Smollett answered; “Yes. I worry about my privacy. I don’t even like Ancestry DNA.”
Webb persists: But later you gave your DNA to the FBI?” to which Smollett responded; “Yes, because police were saying I sent myself the hate mail and I knew that wasn’t true – that was the only way to prove it."
A video was then shown of Smollett walking into his building with the rope hanging loosely around his neck. The video was also played in court last week.
Webb: Did you want police to see the rope exactly as it was put around your neck?
Smollett: I was told to put it back on my neck so I wouldn’t be messing with evidence.
Webb: When did you put the rope back around your neck?
Smollett: When Frank [Gatson] (his creative director) told me he called the police and that I should put back all the evidence.
Police body cam footage was then shown from when police entered Smollett’s Chicago apartment – in which the rope is visibly shown tightly around Smollett’s neck.
The two images of Smollett were then shown side-by-side to show the difference in how tightly the rope was worn by Smollett.
Webb: Do you see the difference (with the rope)?
Smollett: Yes. It looks less like a noose when I put it back on…and there’s no reason to make something look less like a noose if you’re trying to create a so-called hoax.
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Jussie Smollett said he had correspondence with CNN's Don Lemon during the early parts of the investigation into the alleged hate crime attack.
In his court testimony on Monday, Smollett said under oath that during the investigation, he received a text from the network’s Don Lemon — supposedly relaying information that the Chicago Police Department didn’t believe his account of what happened, Fox News’ Matt Finn reported from the Windy City courthouse where prosecutors and Smollett’s defense team are at odds.
Smollett also testified that an interview he gave to “Good Morning America” was heavily edited.
“Every breath, every emotion is chopped so you really can’t understand it,” Smollett said of the sit-down conversation.
According to Fox News’ Matt Finn, Smollett further pressed that he was invited by Alicia Keys to perform on stage during the Grammys but ultimately declined because he wanted to perform as a singer and not as singer who was beaten up.
Lemon told his viewers at the time that the story was “personal” since he and Smollett had been acquaintances and were in constant communication since the alleged incident and that Smollett told Lemon what he said had happened to him, which he admitted raised lots of questions.
He stressed that while Smollett is “innocent until proven guilty,” he still “squandered the good will of a whole lot of people” if his story wasn’t true.“
He even lied to a lot of people… including me. And that’s not cool,” Lemon said to his viewers. “He squandered the good will of very high-profile people who one day may be running this country like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and people like President Trump.”
During a panel discussion on his show at the time, Lemon argued that appearing on morning shows “no longer works” when it comes to handling a PR crisis. And because it was a “political” story and not an entertainment one, he should have taken his case to “cable news or social media.”
“Nothing against morning shows, I love all of my colleagues there, I think they do a great job, but that’s not where it is now,” Lemon said. “Come on a show like this or any of my colleagues and sit down with us live for an hour or however long it takes, answer the questions that need to be answered from real journalists — I shouldn’t say that, from journalists who don’t have to worry about the entertainment arm of their particular company.”
“He lost because — not his fault. Maybe people were — I don’t know what they were saying to him, maybe because of his representatives. Who knows? But it was handled poorly,” Lemon told the panel.
Fox News' Matt Finn reports from court Smollett testified the alleged attack felt like “Looney Tunes” when he was attacked.
Asked why he didn’t initially realize a noose was around his neck during the attack, Smollett said, "Because I was getting my a-- whooped."
When asked why he did not call police after after the incident, Smollett said on the stand, “I’m a black man in America and I do not trust police.”
Fox News' Matt Finn reports that Smollett testified to being at home when “Empire” called to tell him an "egregious" hate letter addressed to Smollett was sent to the show and would be calling police to report the matter.
Smollett says he drove to studio to see it in person.
Smollett went on to delve into his association with Bola Osundairo and testified that the frequency in which the two hung out became a running joke that Osundairo was his security whenever they went out.
Smollett’s defense argued the Osundairo brothers wanted to scare Smollett into hiring them as security.
Smollett testified that he did not want “Empire” security following him around because he liked to drive his own vehicle and “smoke my blunt” in his car during lunch.
Jussie Smollett just said under oath “there was no hoax.” Smollett says he was driving, smoking a blunt and texting with a woman about MSNBC appearance – on the day of January 27 – when the Osundairo brothers were in his car.
However, the brothers say that's when hoax was being planned.
Jussie Smollett testified before the country broke for lunch that his relationship with Bola Osundairo was in fact sexual in nature.
He began his testimony by recounting his humble upbringing and how close he is to his family. He also talked about the process with which he got his job on “Empire” and laid out that he began making $28,000 per episode in Season 1 before ultimately getting $100,000 by Season 5.
He said it was during Season 4 that he first met Abimbola Osundairo, who he referred to as “Bon.” He says that they first met in 2017 or 2018 and did drugs that night. Specifically, he says they typically did cocaine and marijuana together with Smollett supplying the pot and Osundairo getting the cocaine for roughly $200 from Smollett.
He said that Osundairo took him to a gay bath house where he had a private room and they made out while doing more drugs. This runs contrary to what Abimbola previously testified when he was on the stand, noting in no uncertain terms that he is not gay and that his relationship with Smollett was only a friendship.
As for Ola Osundairo, the other brother who alleges that Smollett paid him to stage the attack, the actor testified that they do not get along. Smollett said Ola “took the vibe out of the room” on one of the rare occasions the three of them hung out. He says that night, he and Bon went to the bath house again and did more intimate acts on each other.
The defense has called its sixth witness in the trial. As expected, Jussie Smollett himself has taken the stand.
The former "Empire" actor is currently giving testimony in his own defense as he tries to prove that he did not orchestrate an alleged hate crime attack against himself in January of 2019.
Jussie Smollett’s defense attorney Tina Glandian called its fifth witness to the stand Monday, Brett Mahoney, a former Chicago journalist who worked as an executive producer on seasons 4, 5 and 6 of “Empire.”
The focus of Mahoney’s testimony had to do with the hate mail letter that Smollett received on the set. The prosecution alleges that Smollett sent the letter to himself and that he staged the alleged hate crime attack against himself after he was displeased with how producers reacted to the letter.
However, Mahoney testified that Smollett did not want a lot of attention to be paid to the hate mail letter. However, he was immediately given extra security because of it, but the actor repeatedly complained that they security was too intrusive and didn’t want them following him home.
Upon cross-examination, the prosecution noted that the security the actor received was for only three days, and that the protection started six days after the letter was initially received.
Defense called its fourth witness on Monday in Jussie Smollett’s trial and it was not the actor himself.
Instead, Anthony Moore was called to testify on the former “Empire” actor’s behalf. Moore worked as a security guard for the Sheridan Hotel in downtown Chicago, located right near where the alleged attack happened.
On that night, he testified that he witnessed two men run past him, shining his flashlight in the face of the first. Moore described the man who he shined a light on as being a White man dressed in all-black with a ski-mask on. After that person ran past him, he witnessed another, shorter man run past but seemingly did not get a good look at him.
Despite Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who alleged they were tasked by Smollett with carrying out the attack, being Black men from Nigeria, Moore was adamant that one of the people he saw that night was a White man. He also described seeing another person on the ground on all fours in the direction that the two men were running away from. Presumably, this was Smollett.
If there truly was a person besides the Osundairo brothers there that night, it would run counter to both their story and the story that has been accepted by Chicago Police and the prosecution. It would also be in keeping with Smollett’s original statement that White men jumped him, yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him and appeared to show their support for then-President Donald Trump.
However, Moore states that when he gave a statement to Special Prosecutor Dan Webb in his office on Jan. 9, 2020, someone else wrote it out while he spoke. The statement made no mention of a White man but Moore says he made it clear that’s what he saw.
Jussie Smollett may testify at his trial in Chicago in a last ditch effort to convince the jury of his innocence. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
The prosecution rested its case against Jussie Smollett on Friday. Meanwhile, Judge Linn has said that he expects jury deliberations in the case to begin either today or tomorrow.
As a result, many believe that Smollett will seize today as his last option to take the stand and speak in his own defense. However, there are a myriad of reasons that someone on trial often does not take the stand. Although the jury has been instructed not to read into whether or not Smollett testifies, legal experts have told The Associated Press that it may be his only hope to win after the defense has seemingly struggled to tell his side of the story.
After the two brothers who allege Smollett instructed them to carry out the attack testified and had much of what they said backed by video and other evidence found by Chicago police, many believe that words directly from Smollett may be his only hope to convince a jury of his innocence.
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