CHICAGO (CN) — Jussie Smollett, the former "Empire" star accused of orchestrating a fake hate crime on himself in January 2019, took the witness stand Monday in his criminal trial in Chicago, directly contradicting what other witnesses said under oath last week.
Specifically, Smollett, who is Black and gay, characterized his relationship with Abimbola Osundairo, the younger of the two brothers who claimed to have helped carry out the alleged bogus attack, as sexual. In his own testimony last week, Abimbola denied ever having a sexual relationship with the actor.
Smollett said he met Abimbola at a club in Chicago in 2017, when Abimbola was also working on the set of "Empire" as a background actor. Smollett said they did cocaine in the club's bathroom before going to a private room in a gay bathhouse called Steamworks together.
"It was a club. You go into a stall, you do a bump [of cocaine]... and we kept it going at the bathhouse," Smollett said, adding that he and Abimbola "made out" in the private room.
Smollett said that he and Abimbola - who he knew as "Bola" or "Bon" - hung out numerous times following this first encounter, including another visit to the bathhouse to masturbate together. Smollett also said Abimbola helped him procure cocaine, cannabis and MDMA, something Abimbola corroborated in his testimony.
“I liked it. It got me away from everything else, so to speak,” Smollett said.
Smollett's testimony that his relationship with Abimbola was sexual, contrary to the younger Osundairo brother's own statements, was part of the defense's larger strategy of attempting to undercut prosecutors' large amount of damning witness testimony and physical evidence. The prosecution rested its case Thursday evening after presenting not only the Osundairo brothers' testimony, but also texts from Smollett to Abimbola asking for help "on the low," and street camera footage showing Smollett's car parked directly behind Abimbola's apartment mere hours before the alleged attack on Jan. 29, 2019.
In Smollett's questioning, the defense particularly focused on portraying the Osundairo brothers as unreliable witnesses. Regarding the "on the low" text, Smollett said he was asking Abimbola to get him a Nigerian herbal weight loss steroid, allegedly illegal in the U.S., when the Osundairo brothers visited family in the African country in February 2019.
As for Smollett's car being seen behind Abimbola's apartment prior to the alleged attack, the defense explained that this was another element of his and Abimbola's relationship, and that the pair often drove around Chicago together. Smollett denied ever asking Abimbola for help in staging a hoax hate crime while they were driving.
The car, Smollett said, was also his creative space for writing music.
“I wrote my entire album in the car,” he testified.
Defense attorney Nenye Uche also questioned Smollett about the alleged homophobia of Olabinjo Osundairo, Abimbola's older brother.
The defense has repeatedly characterized Olabinjo as a potentially violent homophobe over the course of the trial. They have cited his 2011 conviction for aggravated battery, as well as a text he sent to a friend in which he described an unnamed man as a "fruity ass" and said he "was done with gaylords." Last week the defense posited that Olabinjo's alleged homophobia could have been a motivating factor in carrying out a real hate crime on Smollett.
“[Olabinjo] kind of creeped me out... He took the vibe out of the room,” Smollett said Monday.
Olabinjo in his own testimony last week denied being homophobic, citing that he worked as a bouncer in Boystown, Chicago's largest gay neighborhood, from 2015 to 2018.
“I have no hate for anybody. I believe in God. God is love,” Olabinjo said on Thursday.
As another part of the defense's characterization of the Osundairo brothers as unreliable witnesses - and perhaps the Chicago Police Department's investigation into the allegedly faked hate crime as biased against the actor - Smollett was not the only witness the defense called to the stand on Monday.
They also called Brett Mahoney, one of the "Empire" showrunners, and Anthony Moore, a former security guard for the Sheraton Grand Hotel, which is directly adjacent to the site of the alleged hate crime.
Mahoney described how Smollett's set security was increased in January 2019 after the studio received a hate letter that called Smollett a "fa---- n-----" and depicted him hanging from a tree. Contrary to the prosecution's assertions last week, Mahoney and Smollett both claimed that the extra security vexed the actor. The prosecution argued previously that Smollett may have staged the alleged hate crime to attract media attention to the letter and the studio's response to it.
On cross-examination, Mahoney admitted to prosecutor Samuel Mendenhall that the "Empire" studio did not bring the letter to the press.
“It’s not like someone is gonna call me up on a random Tuesday and ask if Jussie Smollett received a hate letter," Mahoney said.
Moore, who was on duty at the time of the incident, claimed to have seen two men running past him in winter gear and masks as he was doing his rounds that night. He also claimed to have seen Smollett lying on the ground nearby.
The Osundairo brothers, who said they allegedly attacked Smollett at his own direction, are Black. However, Moore testified that at least one of the men he saw run past him was white.
“I told [police]… as I walked through the doors, I saw a man running toward me, he appeared to be white," Moore said.
Moore also told the jury that while giving his initial witness statement in February in 2019, he felt pressured to say that it was possible that the man he saw was actually Black, whose skin appeared lighter because he was shining a flashlight at the man's exposed eyes.
“After I gave my statement to CPD… I felt pressured to put something out that I didn’t see,” Moore said.
On cross-examination, prosecutor Sean Wieber abandoned asking Moore if he was sure the man he saw was white. Instead, Wieber focused on asking Moore, who is trained to respond to emergency situations, if he ever thought Smollett was actually in danger.
Moore answered that he did not.
“You didn’t hear that guy crying?" "You didn’t hear that guy asking for help?" "You thought they were all just fooling around, correct?" Wieber asked Moore in quick succession. Moore answered "correct" to all three questions.
Smollett maintains that what he experienced was not "fooling around" at all.
“No. There was no hoax,” the actor testified.
Smollett's testimony will continue throughout Monday afternoon. Cook County Judge James Linn said last Thursday that he expected the jury to begin deliberation no later than Tuesday, but on Monday evening Linn said he now believed the trial would continue into Wednesday.
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