Jussie Smollett is ARRESTED for filing a false police report and disorderly conduct after ‘faking racist, homophobic attack then lying to the police about it’
- Smollett was taken into custody sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning
- The 36-year-old is being held for filing a false police report and disorderly conduct
- He is due to appear in bond court at 1.30pm CT on Thursday afternoon
- His lawyers released a statement on Wednesday condemning the police
- They said he was entitled to the presumption of innocence ‘like any citizen’
- Brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo testified against him in front of a grand jury
- They say he paid them to attack him in Chicago on January 29
- He claimed two masked assailants beat him, tied a noose around his neck, poured bleach on him and yelled: ‘This is MAGA country!’
- Smollett’s motive for the alleged hoax remains unclear but police sources have suggested he was trying to boost his profile
- 20th Century Fox is reportedly considering suspending him in light of his arrest
Jussie Smollett is in police custody and is due to appear in bond court later on Thursday
Jussie Smollett was taken into police custody on charges of filing a false police report and disorderly conduct early on Thursday morning.
The 36-year-old Empire actor is scheduled to appear in bond court at 1.30pm CT.
Late on Wednesday night, Smollett was charged for allegedly staging the January 29 attack and then lying repeatedly to police about it after Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo testified against him before a grand jury.
They say Smollett paid them to carry out the attack and that he also sent a threatening letter to himself a week earlier.
Smollett insists he is innocent and has condemned the police’s handling of his case.
20th Century Fox, which released a statement hours before he was charged to say it was standing by him, is now reportedly suspending the actor.
A press conference was scheduled for 9am CT during which detectives will give more details about the arrest. It is not yet known where he was or what time he was taken into custody.
In a statement to DailyMail.com on Wednesday night, Smollett’s attorneys said that he would vigorously contest the charges.
Surveillance footage emerged on Wednesday showing Ola and Abel Osundairo buying ski masks the day before the attack
‘Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked,’ attorneys Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson said.
‘Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.’
The Osundairo brothers testified before the grand jury for about two and a half hours on Wednesday.
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‘They manned up’: Nigerian brothers’ attorney says they did…
‘I know him, I believe him’: Jussie Smollett’s cast mate…
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Addressing reporters outside afterwards, their attorney Gloria Schmidt said they’d ‘manned up’ by speaking out against Smollett.
They have not been arrested or charged and their lawyer said they had not been offered any form of immunity deal in exchange for testifying against Smollett.
‘There was a point where this story needed to be told, and they manned up and they said: “We’re gonna correct this.”
‘Plea deal, immunity, all of that — they don’t’ care about that.’
She said that Smollett was lying, and that she didn’t know how his conscience could let him sleep at night.
‘I think Jussie’s conscience is not letting him sleep right now and he should unload that conscience and come out and tell the American people what happened,’ she added.
‘I think the biggest thing for the American people to know. Is that this story, has a lot of complications to it.
‘We’re not trying to hide anything from the press. But we wanted to make sure that everything checked out.
‘When I say that the police spent countless man-hours trying to piece this together, I mean that, I absolutely mean that.
‘When I say that my clients spent countless hours getting their story out there to the police so that they could do their work, I mean that, too,’ she said.
The brothers’ testimony came after footage emerged of them buying ski masks, a red hat and gloves in a store the day before the attack. The footage was obtained by CBS on Wednesday.
The brothers said Smollett also sent himself this letter to the Fox studio where Empire is filmed a week before the attack
It was taken on January 28 and shows brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo inside what looks like a drug store buying the masks and one hat.
Smollett told police that he was attacked by two masked assailants who punched him, poured bleach on him, tied a noose around his neck and called him ‘Empire n****r f****t’.
No footage has ever emerged of the incident itself.
In the video taken inside the store the day earlier, the brothers look calm in the video as they bring the items to the register.
Abel, whose full name is Abimbola, is dressed in a blue plaid jacket. About 30 seconds into the video, he puts his hood up while standing at the register.
His younger brother Ola, who once appeared on Empire as an extra, is in a green jacket.
Abel and Ola Osundairo’s lawyers said on Wednesday night that they ‘manned up’ by telling police that Smollett paid them
Ola appeared on the second season of Empire as an extra. He is shown with Lee Daniels, the show’s creator, on set in 2015
Smollett follows the brothers’ joint Instagram account where they post videos and photographs of themselves working out
Once they had dumped their haul on the register, they looked at one another and waited to be served.
For four-and-a-half minutes, they stand and watch as the cashier bags up their items which included gloves, bobble hats and sunglasses.
Abel put his gloves on to leave the store and he paid cash for everything.
As they waited for the items to be bagged up, Abel got out his phone and appeared to be typing and looking through images.
He and Ola maintained conversation throughout.
The brothers were picked up by police at Chicago O’Hare Airport on Wednesday night as they returned from Nigeria.
Police seized a red hat from the brothers’ home along with ski masks when they raided it last week.
Smollett said his attackers were wearing masks but there was not a description of a red hat in the initial reports.
Police have since shared their belief that at least one of them was wearing a red hat at the time of the attack.
Last Thursday, the actor wept as he said ‘who the f*** would make that up’ when addressing the skepticism surrounding his version of events during an interview on Good Morning America
Smollett’s family, many of whom are also actors, have spoken out repeatedly in support of him since the January 29 attack as have many of his co-stars on Empire.
Among them is Gabby Sidibe, his roommate at one time, who said on Instagram on Wednesday: ‘I know him. I believe him.’
Fox also insisted that he was not being written out of the show, as had been claimed, and called him a ‘consummate professional’ in a statement.
Smollett’s lawyers include Mark Geragos, who has represented Michael Jackson and Colin Kaepernick, in the past.
Neither Geragos nor his other attorneys, Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson, responded to inquiries on Wednesday about the case.
Smollett being named as a suspect stands to further divide public opinion.
When news of the attack first emerged on January 29 and 30, he was inundated with support across the political spectrum.
Among those who tweeted their condemnation of him were Democratic presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.
But as days went by with no suspects on the horizon, details about the case and the police’s investigation into it began to cast doubt on Smollett’s version of events.
One of the earliest sources of speculation was the fact that Smollett waited 42 minutes to call the police then refused to hand over his phone to the police for them to verify his story.
He then handed over redacted files that police described as ‘insufficient’.
Frustrated with the coverage of his case, he hit out at the media for reporting on leaked information coming from within the Chicago police department and insisted he was the victim.
He then went on Good Morning America to protest his innocence.
In an hour-long interview with Robin Roberts, he wept as he recalled the attack and abhorred the reaction to it.
Gloria Schmidt, the brothers’ lawyer, said Smollett was lying and that she didn’t know how his conscience could let him sleep at night
Choking back tears, he explained when asked why it took so long for him to contact the authorities: ‘There is a level of pride there.
‘We live in a society where as a gay man you are considered somehow to be weak and I am not weak. I am not weak and we as a people are not weak.’
Later, he added how desperate he was for them to find footage of the attack.
‘I want that video found so badly because, for probably four reasons.
‘Number one, I want them to find the people that did it.
‘Number two, I want them to stop being able to say ‘alleged’ attack.
‘Number three, I want them to see that I fought back,’ he continued, welling-up.
‘I want a little gay boy who might watch this to see that I fought the f*** back. They ran off,’ I didn’t,’ he said.
After it emerged that Smollett knew the brothers and may have been involved in the staging of the attack, the celebrities and politicians who rushed to support him walked back their claims.
Nancy Pelosi deleted her tweet about it and Cory Booker said he would now be ‘withholding judgement’ until more information emerged.
Kamala Harris said, when questioned about her tweet that it was a ‘modern day lynching’, that she was ‘very concerned’.
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