The trial against former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett – who allegedly staged a racist and homophobic hate crime against himself and filed a false police report regarding the incident — does not appear to be going the actor’s way, as documented in a series tweets from Fox News national reporter Matt Finn.
Abimbola “Bola” Osundairo took the stand Wednesday to testify against Smollett, saying that the actor had driven him and his brother to the place where he wanted the attack to occur and had used the word “training” to describe a practice run of what he intended to happen.
‘Bola’ Osundairo in the courthouse pic.twitter.com/Ddsy8nDqMS
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 1, 2021
According to a report from CNN, Osundairo testified that Smollett asked him to “fake beat him up,” and then suggested that they should enlist his brother Olabinjo to assist him in the “attack”:
“We went over the details of what he wanted us to say and do,” Abimbola Osundairo told jurors.
Smollett allegedly told him to say, “Empire, f****t, n***er, MAGA” then the conversation moved to the more physical aspect, he said.Osundairo testified, “He wants me to attack him, but he wanted me to pull the punch so I don’t hurt him, give him a bruise.”
The final part of the plan would be to “pour bleach on him and then he would run away,” Osundairo testified.
“Who was in charge of this thing?” Special Prosecutor Daniel Webb asked.
“Jussie was,” Osundairo told the jury.
Osundairo told Webb that Smollett “wanted to use the fake attack or camera footage for media.”
He said Smollett also told the brothers not to take a rideshare to where they planned to meet so there wouldn’t be a record of their trip.
As Finn noted in a tweet, Osundairo claimed that Smollett wanted to stage the attack primarily because he felt like the “Empire” studio had failed to address a hate letter he had allegedly received. “Smollett explained he was upset the Empire studio didn’t take more seriously a MAGA hate letter sent to Smollett,” Finn noted.
“Bola Osundairo testifies he and his brother agreed because Bola felt indebted to Smollett for Empire part and thought Smollett could better his career,” Finn continued, adding, “Osundairo says they used code word ‘training’ for a dry run of alleged fake attack.”
According to the prosecution, law enforcement was never able to determine who sent the hate letter to Smollett — and it has been alleged that he sent it to himself.
A Chicago Police Department detective also testified that Smollett had appeared to be upset when he learned that the surveillance camera nearby the scene of the attack had not been pointing the right direction to provide footage of what had happened.
Osundairo’s testimony appeared to bolster claims that Smollett had intended for the attack to be caught on that camera.
“Osundairo testifies Smollett wanted the incident to be caught on camera to be ‘used for media.’ But, the camera did not point toward incident,” Finn tweeted.