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Early in the morning hours of a polar vortex in January 2019, FOX's "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett claimed two White supremacist Trump supporters attacked him near his Chicago apartment in a racially-motivated hate crime that would soon incite outrage from activists and the media. It's the "hate crime" that dominated headlines, but facts proved none of it was true. In December 2021, the now-40-year-old actor and singer was convicted of five felony counts of disorderly conduct. One year ago, he was sentenced in March 2022 to 150 days in county jail. Brothers Abimbola "Bola" and Olabinjo "Ola" Osundairo, Smollett's accomplices...

CHICAGO, IL—In a powerful, emotional moment in the Jussie Smollett trial Thursday, a mirror was brought into the courtroom so Smollett could face his attackers for the first time since he was beaten up on the streets of Chicago. Smollett demanded to face his attackers to help him overcome the pain and trauma of the assault, and the judge obliged. He signaled for a bailiff, who brought in a tall mirror and held it up to Smollett. The actor wept as he looked his attackers right in the eye, facing them man to man. "Everyone deserves to face their attackers...

CHICAGO, IL—In a bombshell statement during his court case today, Jussie Smollett declared he can no longer be tried as he was murdered by racists while walking home last night and is now dead. "I am now dead, so I can't stand trial," said Smollett, in tears. "While I was walking home last night, a gang of white Republicans surrounded me and said 'Let's go Brandon!' and then they shot me. It was terrifying." The defense team backed up Smollett's statement. "Our client has clearly been murdered by racists, your honor, as he so eloquently stated today. We request that...

CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett’s attorneys asked for a mistrial Thursday after the judge called their evidence irrelevant in front of the jury and “physically lunged” at one of the actor’s lawyers. The odd fracas came in the midst of the defense’s cross-examination of Olabinjo Osundairo, who claims he was paid to help Smollett stage the hate crime, as attorney Tamara Walker grilled him about his alleged homophobia and past derogatory remarks toward suspected gay men. Osundairo, 30, had just acknowledged he used the word “fruity ass” to refer to a man he suspected was gay and Walker asked if Smollett,...

A man who worked with Jussie Smollett testified Wednesday that the former “Empire” actor recruited him and his brother to fake a homophobic and racist attack on him in downtown Chicago nearly three years ago. Abimbola Osundairo said Smollett asked him and his brother “to fake beat him up” and instructed them on how to carry out the January 2019 hoax. Smollett planned a “dry run” and gave him a $100 bill to buy supplies for the staged attack, Osundairo said. He said he and his brother agreed because Osundairo, who worked as a stand-in on “Empire,” felt indebted to...

The Jussie Smollett trial in Chicago is underway, and it's been quite a show thus far. Fox News correspondent Matt Finn, who's been on this case since it first broke almost three years ago, has been following every twist and turn. One of the key arguments from Smollett's defense team -- which amusingly continues to frame their client as 'a real victim' -- is that the police rushed to judgment and failed to do due diligence before wrongly concluding that the alleged crime was a hoax. That contention blew up in their faces, as Chicago officials testified in great detail...

Unredacted title: Smollet Crushed after Osundairos Blast Huge Lawsuit! This Changes Everything Video at link.

The defense for former "Empire" actor, Jussie Smollett, rested their case on Tuesday after Smollett testified that the brothers involved in what prosecutors argued was a feigned hate crime were "liars." "They're liars," Smollett said of the brothers as he testified on Tuesday, according to NBC News. "They also said I had something to do with it, and I didn't." The prosecution has argued that Smollett staged a “fake hate crime” against himself by hiring two brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, to stage a fake attack against him in 2019.

Two brothers who cops allege Jussie Smollett paid to carry out a staged hate crime against him, are now refusing to cooperate with the case because they're being treated like suspects. The Chicago Police Department claims Ola and Abel Osundario were paid $3,500 to jump the Empire actor last January before he claimed he was victim of a homophobic attack. The acting brothers agreed to help police in the case against Smollett but now they have changed their minds because the police are withholding their belongings as part of evidence.