Defense rests at Jussie Smollett’s trial

CHICAGO – Jussie Smollett on Tuesday repeatedly denied he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself for publicity, telling a prosecutor as the trial neared its end that “there was no hoax on my part” and that two brothers who testified against him are “liars.” Lawyers for the former “Empire” actor rested their case shortly after Smollett finished a second day of testimony at the Chicago courthouse on charges he lied to police about the January 2019 attack. Smollett denied the brothers’ earlier testimony that they drove around together – circling the area where the alleged attack occurred three times – as part of a “dry run” for the fake assault. After Webb showed Smollett four messages that Smollett sent Abimbola Osundairo that night while the actor was at an airport because his flight home to Chicago was delayed, Smollett told Webb: “If you say so, sir.” In the final message – sent at 12:41 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019, or about 90 minutes before the alleged attack – Smollett told Osundairo that he had finally made it home. In his Monday testimony, Smollett said he was returning home from getting a sandwich around 2 a.m. 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 a piece of hate mail – that included a drawing of a stick figure hanging by a noose – that Smollett had received earlier at the “Empire” set, he testified. The brothers testified last week the fake attack was Smollett’s idea, and that he gave them $100 to buy supplies including a rope to tie a noose around his neck, and directed them to yell racial and gay slurs and “MAGA.” Smollett also said of the Osundairo brothers’ testimony that he staged the attack: “They are liars.” Smollett, 39, is charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct for making what prosecutors say was a false police report about the alleged attack — one count for each time he gave a report — to three different officers.