Jussie Smollett calls attackers who claim he staged hate crime ‘liars’
Jussie Smollett returned to the witness stand on Tuesday at his trial in Chicago, where the former Empire actor said that claims he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself were “100% false”.
Prosecutors continued cross-examining the 39-year-old, who despite appearing calm through several hours of testimony on Monday, grew increasingly irritated during his exchanges with special prosecutor Dan Webb on Tuesday.
Smollett, who faces charges that he lied to Chicago police about the January 2019 attack, sought to refute damaging testimony from two brothers last week.
They said Smollett, who is gay and Black, orchestrated the hoax to get publicity, giving them $100 for supplies and instructing them to place a noose around his neck and yell homophobic slurs. They also said Smollett gave them a $3,500 check to carry it out.
Smollett said he wrote the $3,500 check to Abimbola Osundairo for nutrition and training advice. Asked by his defense attorney if he gave Osundairo payment for some kind of hoax, Smollett replied: “Never.”
Under cross-examination on Tuesday, Smollett said that a few days before the alleged attack, he picked up Ambimbola Osundairo in his car to go work out and that Osundairo’s brother, Olabingo Osundairo, came along. Smollett denied the brothers’ earlier testimony that they drove around together – circling the area where the alleged attack occurred three times – as part of a “dry run” for the fake assault.
He said circling the area was not unusual behavior for him, and that he called off the plan to work out because he did not want to work out with Olabingo Osundairo, whom he had not invited along. Smollett said the situation was “weird” after he and Ambimbola Osundairo picked up Olabingo Osundairo.
Webb’s cross-examination also revealed some inconsistencies in Smollett’s testimony, including about whether he sent private messages to confirm the timing of the alleged attack and whether his attackers were white, as police say Smollett told them.
“Mr Webb, will all due respect you don’t understand Instagram,” Smollett said curtly. Webb replied, “Look at me. I’m old. I don’t understand Instagram. Just answer my question.”
Smollett went on to accuse Webb of “misrepresenting the facts to the jury” and said that “there was no fake attack”. He also denied sending the messages and after Webb showed Smollett four messages that Smollett sent Abimbola Osundairo that night while the actor was at an airport because his flight home to Chicago was delayed, Smollett told Webb, “If you say so, sir.”
Smollett also said he assumed his attackers were white simply because of the pale skins around their ski masks’ eyeholes and the racial slurs they used. He then said he “would never say they acted or sounded white … [as] that would be racist to say that someone acted white or sounded white.”
Webb noted that Smollett switched his description of the attackers to “pale,” to which Smollett replied that it was the “responsible thing” to change the description. “I didn’t want to make the assumption that they were white. So I said ‘let me change that and just say that they were pale-skinned,’” he said.
When Webb went on to ask if Smollett believed describing his attackers as white would make his “fake hate crime” more legitimate, Smollett said, “You would have to ask someone who actually planned a fake hate crime.”
The actor also became visibly upset when Webb asked him if “getting a few bruises” was really damaging to his career.
“Mr. Webb, I have a scar under my eye that looks like a bag for the rest of my life … It’s absolutely a problem,” Smollett replied.
He also said of the Osundairo brothers’ testimony that he staged the attack: “They are liars.”
The brothers, Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo, who are Black, testified last week that Smollett instructed them to yell “this is Maga country” during the fake assault.
Smollett is charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct for making what prosecutors say was a false police report about the alleged attack – one count for each time he gave a report to three different officers. The class 4 felony carries a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said if Smollett is convicted he probably would be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
He has pleaded not guilty. The trial continues.