The defense will deliver closing arguments Wednesday afternoon before the jury begins deliberations.
Chicago, Ill. — Jussie Smollett never wanted police to solve the horrible hate crime that was allegedly perpetrated against him on a frigid morning in January 2019, special prosecutor Dan Webb told the jury during closing arguments Wednesday in the actor’s criminal trial.
That’s why Smollett withheld evidence from investigators, refusing to turn over his cell phone to detectives, and declined to provide his medical records from the attack or a DNA sample. That’s why Smollett falsely reported that one of his alleged attackers was white, when evidence points to the two attackers being brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who are black.
And that’s why Smollett never signed a criminal complaint against the brothers, even after detectives provided him with substantial evidence that the two brothers were his attackers.
“Mr. Smollett didn’t want the crime solved,” Webb told the jury during his closing argument, that lasted about two hours. “He wanted to report it as a hate crime. He told the brothers he wanted to get the media exposure, but he didn’t want the brothers apprehended.”
It is not a complicated case, Webb told the jury: Smollett, then a star on the hit TV show Empire, developed a secret plan for a hoax attack, and then recruited the Osundairos, extras on Empire, to carry it out. He directed them to call him racist and homophobic slurs, to rough him up a bit – but not too much, to pour bleach on him, to hang a noose from his neck, and to call out “this is MAGA country,” to make it appear it was carried out by Donald Trump supporters.
Then, Webb said, Smollett falsely reported the hoax to police as a real attack.
“We have not only proven this beyond a reasonable doubt, we have proven this by overwhelming evidence,” Webb told the jury.
Webb also accused Smollett of repeatedly lying to the jury when he testified in his own defense this week, and he said the actor tailored his testimony around the indisputable evidence in the case. Smollett was lying when told the jury that the reason he picked up the Osundairo brothers and drove around his neighborhood just two days before the attack was because he had intended to workout with Abimbola Osundairo at his apartment’s gym, Webb said. Surveillance video shows they never worked out, and never even got out of Smollett’s car.
Webb accused Smollett of lying when he repeatedly said one of his attackers appeared to be white or pale-skinned, when the Osundairos are black. Webb said Smollett was lying when he told the jury that Abimbola Osundairo instructed him to walk to a Walgreens near his apartment on the frigid morning of the attack to get eggs for breakfast. And Webb said Smollett was lying when he told the jury that the reason he was in regular contact with Abimbola Osundairo in the hours before the alleged attack was to reschedule a workout for 9 a.m. the next morning. That workout never occurred, Webb said, and there’s no evidence that Osundairo showed up at Smollett’s apartment for the workout, or that Smollett canceled it.
“Mr. Smollett went on that witness stand, took an oath that he was going to tell the truth, and he made many false statements to you,” Webb told the jury. “His testimony at the end of the day lacks any sort of credibility whatsoever.”
Webb said the reason Smollett didn’t want to turn over his cell phone to police after the attack is because it would have revealed to detectives that he’d exchanged at least five phone calls, 40 text messages, and several Instagram direct messages with Abimbola Osundairo in the days before the attack. He said the reason he didn’t provide investigators with his medical records is because he didn’t want them to know he hadn’t been seriously injured.
Webb argued that after the fake attack, but before police arrived that morning, Smollett “monkeyed around” with the rope around his neck to make it look more like a real noose. Webb also pointed out that Smollett told the jury that he took the rope off when he got home, but put it back on before police arrived, which conflicts with a 2019 Good Morning America interview where he told Robin Roberts that he hadn’t taken the rope off before police arrived.
Webb argued that there was no way the Osundairo brothers could have carried out the attack on Smollett without advanced knowledge of where he would be and when.
And Webb pushed back on Smollett’s claim that the $3,500 check he wrote to Abimbola Osundairo two days before the attack was for nutrition and exercise plans. The plans – a grocery list, a list of daily meals, and a list of daily exercises – were clearly not worth $3,500, Webb said. The most the Osundairos had ever charged for similar plans was $100, they testified. “The idea that someone would pay $3,500 for that is ridiculous,” Webb said.
The defense will deliver closing arguments Wednesday afternoon before the jury begins deliberations.
Smollett faces six counts of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.