“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s attorney, Tina Glandian, seems desperate to make the case aganst her client — now no longer an actual criminal case — about the two Nigerian-American brothers who admitted to carrying out an attack on Smollett, instead of whether Smollett orchestrated the attack on himself.
In an interview with the Today show Thursday morning, Glandian blasted Chicago police, claiming that only minimal resources were devoted to handling Smollett’s claims of being attacked by two racists outside his tony downtown Chicago high rise in the early morning hours of January 29th, even though at least a dozen detectives were assigned to Smollett’s case at any given time during the investigation.
From there, though, her allegations got stranger: Glandian suggested that the two brothers who allegedly carried out the attack may have been in “whiteface,” which is why Smollett told police that he’d been attacked by two white, male, Donald Trump supporters.
WATCH:
More: Now Smollett’s attorney, Tina Glandian, is suggesting the Nigerian brothers may have worn “whiteface” on the night of the attack.
The police, she said, did “minimal investigation” and if they’d googled like she did, they would have found a video of them in a Joker getup. pic.twitter.com/G0AAXzol2v
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 28, 2019
“Well, you know, I mean, I think there’s — obviously, you can disguise that,” Glandian said, referring to the brothers’ race (both are black).
“You can put makeup on,” she continued. “There is, interestingly enough, a video. You know, I think police had minimal investigation in this case, it took me only five minutes to Google. You know, I was looking up the brothers, and one of the videos that showed up actually was of the brothers in whiteface doing a joker monologue with white makeup on him. So, it’s not — it’s not implausible.”
You can, indeed, find a photo of one of the Osundairo brothers in “Joker” makeup, but it’s not exactly convincing “whiteface” — and certainly not convincing enough to report an attacker as “white” to police.
Glandian has taken to hitting back at critics who say the Chicago State’s Attorney’s office was wrong to have dropped all 17 charges against Smollett before the case went to trial in what appears to be an off-the-books “plea deal,” where Smollett exchanged his $10,000 surety bond and 16 hours of community service at Rainbow Push for a clean record, without having to actually plead to any charges. Glandian has also hit out at those who criticize Smollett for taking the deal as evidence of his own innocence, even though Cook County prosecutors say the quasi-deal doesn’t clear Smollett of any wrongdoing.
Glandian insists that no deal was struck, and that Smollett did the service and forefeited his bond out of kindness and gratitude to the city.
Part of that process seems to be attacking the Osundairo brothers, whom police say Smollett hired to carry out a fake “hate crime” against him. In addition to Glandian’s comments, a story appeared overnight taking the Chicago Police Department to task for sequestering the two brothers in a south side hotel room while they testified in front of a grand jury.
Oh my god, they’re actually going to take his side on this pic.twitter.com/oaAfHsHhF6
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) March 28, 2019
The practice isn’t unusual, and the cops made it clear in a series of reports made public yesterday that the Osundairo brothers were being shielded from the media, and the CPD was open about the fact that it was paying to house the brothers during the ongoing investigation.