Closing arguments set in Smollett trial

‘Empire’ actor, prosecutor lock horns

CHICAGO — Closing arguments are scheduled to begin this morning in actor Jussie Smollett’s criminal trial on charges he faked a hate crime on himself in January 2019.

The defense closed its case Tuesday soon after the conclusion of the former “Empire” star’s testimony, which grew combative during a nearly twohour cross-examination by special prosecutor Dan Webb. The attorney repeatedly demanded details of Smollett’s account of being attacked late one night in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him.

Webb asked several versions of the same question: Wasn’t Smollett planning the hoax the whole time?

Smollett gave several versions of the same answer: There was no hoax, the attack was real.

Smollett repeatedly interrupted Webb and occasionally looked to Judge James Linn for help, saying he was being asked questions that mischaracterized certain evidence.

During one extended exchange, Webb asked Smollett about Instagram messages that the actor claimed were public, not private as Webb had suggested. “Mr. Webb, all due respect, you don’t understand Instagram,” Smollett shot back.

When Webb, who is white, later read out an Instagram message from Smollett that included a variation of the n-word, Smollett appeared taken aback. He interrupted Webb and asked him not to use that word “out of respect for every African-American in the courtroom.”

Webb apologized and said Smollett could read the message out loud instead.

Smollett’s testimony was the centerpiece of a case that essentially comes down to a credibility contest: Who is more believable, Smollett, or Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, the brothers who testified last week that they helped Smollett fake an attack on himself?

Webb’s questions were pointed Tuesday, with the prosecutor interrupting Smollett several times and asking the judge to strike his answers as nonresponsive.

Linn repeatedly told Smollett to listen to the question and not ad lib.

Webb pointed out some of the more puzzlinhg details of Smollett’s account, including that he picked up both Osundairo brothers at their Chicago apartment four days before the attack and smoked marijuana as he circled the block near his building where the attack later occurred.

Did they plan a hoax during that drive, as the brothers both testified? Webb asked.

“Absolutely not,” Smollett said. “That never happened.”

About an hour into Tuesday’s cross-examination, Webb asked Smollett straight out: Was it the Osundairo brothers who attacked him?

“I don’t know,” Smollett said. ” … There’s no way for me to know that, Mr. Webb.”

Did Smollett recognize Abimbola Osundairo’s build or voice?

“In that moment I’m not going to stop and say, ‘Hey Bola, was that you?’ I don’t know,” Smollett said. “… it was pretty fast, it was an attack.”

Does Smollett doubt the Osundairos’ testimony that they are the people seen walking in surveillance footage?

“I doubt every word that they say,” Smollett replied.

“So is that them?” Webb asked.

“I just don’t know. They’re liars,” Smollett said. “They also said I had something to do with it, and that’s not true.”

Smollett said he got a good look at only one of his attackers and initially told police he believed the man was white. He saw pale skin under the man’s ski mask, and he assumed that the assailants were white because they shouted MAGA [Make America Great Again] and used the n-word with a hard “R,” he said.

“I made the assumption,” Smollett said. “… It could have been a white person, it could have been a pale someone else.”

Did he say his attacker was white because it would make a fake hate crime more believable, Webb asked?

“You’d have to actually ask someone who did a fake hate crime,” Smollett said.