Webb said Smollett lied when he testified that he picked up the Osundairo brothers a few days before the alleged attack so they could work out, rather than to do a “dry run” of the fake attack, as the brothers told jurors last week. Uche suggested Olabingo’s homophobia and Abimbola’s “self-hatred” were motives for their attack.Īnother possible motive, Uche said, was that Abimbola Osundairo wanted to be hired as Smollett’s security. Smollett later testified that the men performed sex acts together at the bathhouse.
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He also recalled that Abimbola Osundairo testified he went to a bathhouse with Smollett but denied any sexual relationship. Uche told the jury that one of the brothers, Olabingo Osundairo, posted homophobic slurs on social media. When he returned home, a friend called Chicago police, something Smollett said he wouldn’t have done because as a Black man he doesn’t trust police. Smollett said he noticed a rope, like a noose, around his neck after the attack. Smollett said a man hit him in the head and he fell to the ground and another man kicked him before the attackers ran away.
![sketch trial forever sketch trial forever](https://fox4kc.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2021/12/AP21335001711979.jpg)
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29, 2019, when someone yelled a racist, homophobic remark that referenced the TV show “Empire.” The person also shouted something about “MAGA country,” an apparent reference to then-President Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.” The slogan also had been scrawled on some hate mail, featuring a drawing of a stick figure hanging by a noose, that Smollett testified he had received at the “Empire” set. Smollett said he was returning home around 2 a.m. His attorneys argued that the brothers attacked the actor because they are homophobic and that they made up the story about the attack being staged but said they wouldn’t testify against Smollett if he paid them each $1 million. ” He called the brothers “liars” and said the $3,500 check he wrote them was for meal and workout plans. Smollett testifiedthat he was the victim of a real hate crime,telling jurors “there was no hoax. The brothers testified last week that Smollett recruited and paid them for the hoax, telling them to put a noose around his neck, yell racist and homophobic slurs and rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media. “The entire prosecution’s case, including the foundation of the case, is built like a house of cards,” Uche said. “At the end of the day, he lacks any credibility whatsoever,” Webb said.ĭefense attorney Nenye Uche said in his closing argument that two brothers who testified that Smollett orchestrated the attack and paid them to carry it out are “sophisticated liars” out for money.
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He also accused Smollett of lying to jurors, saying surveillance video from before the alleged attack and that night contradicts key moments of Smollett’s testimony. “Besides being against the law, it is just plain wrong to outright denigrate something as serious as a real hate crime and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such historical significance in our country,” Webb said.
![sketch trial forever sketch trial forever](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p1exqGDnOrg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Smollett, who is Black and gay, told police someone put a noose around his neck and yelled racist and homophobic slurs during the January 2019 attack near his downtown Chicago home. In his closing, special prosecutor Dan Webb said Smollett caused Chicago police to spend enormous resources investigating an alleged crime that they now believe is fake. They are expected to resume deliberations Thursday. The jury deliberated for about two hours Wednesday but broke for the day without reaching a verdict. The lawyers’ closing arguments capped just over one week of testimonyin the case against the former “Empire” actor. CHICAGO (AP) - A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday there is “overwhelming evidence” that Jussie Smollett lied to Chicago police about being the victim of an anti-gay, racist hate crime, while a defense attorney called the case a “house of cards” built on testimony from two liars.