Jussie Smollett Trial: Jury Has Begun DeliberationsBreitbart News 8 Dec 2021
The jury in Jussie Smollett’s trial started deliberating Wednesday, after a prosecutor said there is “overwhelming evidence” that the former “Empire” actor lied to police about being the victim of an anti-gay, racist attack and his defense attorney said the charges are based on lies.
The deliberations began after a roughly one-week trial in which two brothers testified that Smollett recruited them to fake the attack near his home in downtown Chicago in January 2019. They said Smollett, who is Black and gay, orchestrated the hoax, telling them to put a noose around his neck, yell racist and homophobic slurs and rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.
Smollett testified that he was the victim of a real hate crime, telling jurors “there was no hoax. ” He called the brothers “liars” and said the $3,500 check he wrote them was for meal and workout plans. His attorneys argued that the brothers attacked the actor because they are homophobic and that they made up the story about the attack being staged but said they wouldn’t testify against Smollett if he paid them each $1 million.
In his closing argument Wednesday, special prosecutor Dan Webb told the jury that what Smollett did caused Chicago police to spend enormous resources investigating an alleged crime that turned out to be fake. Smollett, who is Black and gay, told police someone put a noose around his neck and yelled racist and homophobic slurs.
Webb said Smollett lied when he testified that he picked up the Osundairo brothers a few days before the alleged attack so they could work out, rather than to do a “dry run” of the fake attack, as the brothers told jurors last week. In surveillance video, the men are seen driving around Smollett’s apartment building three times, but Smollett never parked his car to go workout.
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https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/12/08/jussie-smollett-trial-jury-has-begun-deliberations/
