Right now, it seems likely that Jussie Smollett is not only going to be found guilty of staging a fake hate crime and lying about it to police, but also of perjury.
Smollett is facing six counts of felony disorderly conduct for allegedly orchestrating a hate crime against himself and making false reports to the police about it. He took the stand to testify in his defense on Monday, denying repeatedly that his story about two men attacking him outside his downtown Chicago apartment just after 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019, was a hoax. He also denied that he paid the Osundairo brothers, the alleged attackers who worked with Smollett as extras on the set of his show Empire, $3,500 to stage the attack, claiming he only paid them for a five-week “nutrition/workout program.”
“Have you ever planned a hoax?” Smollett’s lawyer Nenye Uche asked the actor.
“Never in my life,” Smollett replied.
Abel and Ola Osundairo told a different story. The brothers said during their testimonies that Smollett had taken them through a “dry run” of the staged attack the day before it was supposed to occur and specifically asked one of them to bruise him without seriously injuring him while the other poured bleach on him and tied a noose around his neck. They also claimed they were providing Smollett with the nutrition and workout program for free and that they believed his $3,500 check was payment for the staged attack.
Someone is lying, and the evidence suggests that someone is Smollett. Prosecutors alleged that Smollett tried to withhold evidence from Chicago police, refusing to hand over his phone, medical records, or DNA sample, even though he was the supposed victim, not a suspect. Smollett then claimed his attackers were white despite there being overwhelming evidence that the only two attackers involved were the Osundairo brothers, who are Nigerian. Moreover, medical evidence corroborates the Osundairo brothers’ testimony that they only bruised Smollett because no injuries were found on him besides slight bruises and scrapes. Lastly, Smollett refused to sign a criminal complaint against the Osundairo brothers after the attack, even after police had taken them into custody.
The jury will decide if these facts line up with the story Smollett has spun. If they do decide he’s guilty of staging the hate crime and lying to police, the court should also hold Smollett accountable for perjury. He is trying to make a mockery of the justice system in the same way he tried to make a mockery out of the Chicago Police Department, and he deserves to face the consequences.
