On Monday, the prosecution in the case against Jussie Smollett, who is accused of orchestrating a high-profile “hate crime” against himself in January 2019, presented its closing arguments to the jury.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb laid out six key points that he said “destroy” Smollett’s case and prove that the actor “faked the hate crime attack against himself,” Fox News reported.
Smollett is facing six counts of felony disorderly conduct for making allegedly false police reports regarding the incident.
Prosecutors say he hired two brothers, one of whom worked with him on the television show “Empire,” to attack him in the streets of Chicago, shouting racial and anti-gay slurs and “MAGA.”
The story received much scrutiny in the right-wing media when it first broke due to a number of red flags and inconsistencies, and as it turns out, law enforcement ultimately agreed.
Prosecutors have argued that Smollett staged the whole thing, and from what we know about the trial, it appears they made their case very well.
Webb’s six points were as follows:
First, Smollett resisted turning over his phone records, medical records and DNA samples to police. Webb said this was because Smollett didn’t want police to find out the truth about the “attack.”
Second, Smollett initially suggested the men who attacked him were white or “pale-skinned.” The men who attacked him were the Osundairo brothers, two black men of Nigerian descent who are irrefutably neither white nor “pale-skinned.”
Third, Smollett tampered with the noose he said his attackers put around his neck. He first removed it then put it back on to show police. When the actor put the noose back on, it appeared much tighter.
Fourth, there was no way for the Osundairo brothers to know where Smollett would be that night unless he had told them. The actor says he left his house in search of food at 2 a.m.
Webb pointed to several Instagram messages between Smollett and Abel Osundairo that he says show the actor was updating the brothers on his whereabouts.
Fifth, Webb highlighted that Smollett sustained no serious injuries during the alleged attack. The Osundairo brothers testified that they were instructed by Smollett not to hurt him too badly.
Sixth, Smollett never signed a criminal complaint against the Osundairo brothers. Webb noted that the day they were arrested in connection with the alleged “hate crime,” Smollett texted them saying he didn’t think they’d done anything wrong and that he would stand by them.
It does not seem that this worked out all too well for Smollett.
Ask yourself — do you think it’s possible that Smollett was the victim of a real assault in which two black men decided to pose as racist, anti-gay Trump supporters and target their friend?
Or is this a case we can take at face value for exactly what it appears to be — a little-known actor staging a “hate crime” against himself for the attention, only to have it blow up in his face?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
