Thread by @crabcrawler1

Jussie Smollett. January 2019. Cold Chicago night. Subway sandwich. "MAGA COUNTRY," red hats, homophobic slurs, (pulled) punches, "racists" recognizing the Empire actor?

Bleach. Noose. Media attention. And it all began almost three years ago now.

I could get into the weeds of Smollett but I'm improvising.

So here' the Good Morning America interview (how Jussie saw himself)

And Dave Chappelle's legendary roast of Jussie Smollett (how the world saw Jussie)

What DOES matter, in early 2019, is that the Jussie Smollett situation came off of Covington Catholic.

The corporate media were hungry to recover their narrative of a so-called "racist" America.

The double fumble of the story that came out of this was a game changer.

(oh wait here's a copy of the original Jussie Smollett police report! awesome. Saves me some time....)

Let's step into the social media time machine and see how the world initially reacted to the Jussie Smollett situation.

Took him at his word. Without question.

(***these are the tweets that people never bothered to delete after the facts of the matter came to light)

I could spend all day on people virtue signaling over Jussie Smollett.

But the actor with the last name of Page topped everyone back in the day, when they blamed Mike Pence (?) for what happened to Jussie Smollett.



They were the most dramatic response.

Both Kamala Harris and Cory Booker reacted to the Jussie Smollett news by describing it as a "modern day lynching."

A little after Valentine's Day 2019 -- Olabinjo “Ola” and Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo enter the story.

Two "Empire" extras. Two black men. Two people who happened to blow the Jussie Smollett story wide open. chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/15/jus…

The narrative busted.

Osundairo brothers ended up cooperating with the police and telling them the whole thing. Surveillance footage showed the pair buying the items they'd end up using in the staged attack against Jussie Smollett.

The $3500 check from Smollett to the Osundairo brothers is a central piece of evidence in the case, despite the debate as to what it was actually intended for.

That's because the relationship between the Osundairos and Smollett makes it/breaks it all. abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/…

Bodycam footage of the night Chicago Police first interviewed Smollett at his apartment.

(If I recall correctly): Jussie didn't call it in to police, it was his manager who did, as you can hear him say Smollett didn't "want [this] to be a big deal." boundingintocomics.com/2019/06/25/chi…

"Video from inside taxi of Osundairo brother’s on their way to meet Jussie Smollett night of reported attack..according to CPD" -- via twitter.com/CharlieDeMar back in 2019.

Local Chicago reporters like him were crucial in getting the facts out.

"So in 2019 Jussie Smollett faced justice for wasting the resources of Chicago police, right?!?!"

Does community service count? pagesix.com/2019/03/27/jus…

(You can thank Kim Foxx for that!) dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6…

Anyway. things get "messy" for a while... pagesix.com/2019/03/22/uni…

Bear with me on this next bit. Because the way the whole situation of Jussie Smollett's charges coming back, and the legal battles, gets complicated and some of it I still don't even understand.

For starters: Kim Foxx's impartiality was brought into question when a former aide of the Obama administration tried getting Foxx to turn the case over to the FBI.

(Jussie Smollett is/was friends with the Obama family.)

A (lengthy!) special investigation into how Kim Foxx handled the Jussie Smollett case was conducted.
huffpost.com/entry/kim-foxx…

By August 2020, results: Foxx acted improperly but not illegally.
chicagotribune.com/columns/john-k…
nbcbayarea.com/news/national-…

So that's that part wrapped up.

Jussie Smollett did NOT want a special prosecutor on his case because that person would have the legal authority to RESTORE charges against him over filing a false police report and wasting everyone's time... apnews.com/article/f00f96…
pagesix.com/2019/10/05/spe…
cbsnews.com/news/jussie-sm…

... but that's exactly what the special prosecutor did. (lol.)
documentcloud.org/documents/6774…

So now we've explained how exactly Jussie Smollett faces the six charges of disorderly conduct that he's currently on trial for, w/o double jeopardy or whatever. tmz.com/2020/02/24/jus…

^^ I had to be careful in how I explained this part.

Because there's this whole detour to the Jussie Smollett story where the city of Chicago and Smollett SUE and COUNTERSUE each other. wjla.com/news/nation-wo…
chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2019/12/…
chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/04/23/jud…

(It was tossed.)

"What about Empire?" Oh, you mean what prosecutors say was Jussie Smollett's motive for staging the whole hoax in the first place?

Smollett burned those bridges and the show ended. He was written out too. breitbart.com/entertainment/…
apnews.com/article/jussie…
abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/em…

Many Jussie Smollett case files were made public in mid-2019.

I'd check the links listed in both of these articles as they posted uniquely different stuff.
news.wttw.com/2019/05/24/rea…
nbcchicago.com/news/national-…

(It's where I snagged this timeline in case I missed something, so far.)

So we come to the actual trial of Jussie Smollett.
nbclosangeles.com/entertainment/…
katv.com/news/entertain…

As you can see by my thread so far it was a long time coming.

Opening arguments in the Jussie Smollett trial started late in the day on November 29th.

-- Prosecution: "Jussie planned the thing to help his career and wasted police's time.
-- Defense: "Police 'rushed to judgement'" and they accuse Osundairo brothers of being the bad guys.

Just to bring the big picture arguments on either side into focus...
-- Prosecution lays out Smollett's actions/behaviors. archive.md/mjJFW#selectio…
-- While the defense makes accusations of prejudice. archive.md/JRJ3U#selectio…

These themes persist throughout the trial.

Keep in mind that Jussie Smollett sent THIS text to Abimbola Osundairo back when things first hit the fan.

Now, over two years later, Smollett would accuse the brothers of malicious behavior during the trial.

So we get into November 30th 2021 next. First full day of Smollett proceedings.

"Jojo Smollett, #JussieSmollett’s older brother, addresses reporters on the way into 26th and Cal this morning" -- via twitter.com/jmetr22b

Note of proper credit: these reporters did the hard work of livetweeting Smollett proceedings.
-- twitter.com/jmetr22b
-- twitter.com/CharlieDeMar/
-- twitter.com/crepeau/
-- twitter.com/samjcharles
-- twitter.com/ByMattMasterso…
-- twitter.com/MattFinnFNC/
(and others, probably)

In terms of DRAMA on November 30th for the Jussie Smollett trial:

during the Osundairo brothers interview with detectives, they asked "Which one of you beat up Jussie's pretty face."

and Smollett's lawyers were OFFENDED and it was made to be a big ol' deal

Also on the first day of Smollett trial: Chicago Police Detective Michael Theis testified for prosecution on how CPD did NOT rush to judgement.

"PD could not find anything the Osundairo brothers told them to be a lie. All corroborated."

A. Osundairo being a drug dealer for Smollett comes up here and there in the proceedings. So, worth a mention in my thread. archive.md/4GRgP

Lastly for the first full day of the Smollett trial, prosecutors bring up how weird it was that Jussie kept that rope around his neck. archive.md/qDVTJ archive.md/dPgG3

Mostly because that's really weird. Also: why didn't Jussie himself call the cops? That too.

"We are with you, Jussie." -- quote from Joe Biden, January 29th 2019. archive.md/1Xhic

December 1st 2021. Second day of Jussie Smollett trial proceedings.

Since we have to use our imaginations about the trial itself -- here's a video of Smollett walking into the Cook County Criminal Courthouse. Hope that helps as a visual aid. (video via twitter.com/SandraTorresNBC)

Detective Murray and her partner Robert Graves interviewed Jussie Smollett when he was at the hospital.

Their testimony in court outlined how Smollett initially said his attackers were white, but backtracking to say "pale-skinned" later.

The cops were very annoyed about that.

"Graves says that, in his nearly 30 years as a CPD officer, Smollett is the only victim of a crime (that he can remember) to refuse to give his phone and medical records to detectives." archive.md/yYSrq#selectio…

I personally find it ironic that Jussie Smollett's hate crime hoax ITSELF was NOT captured by security camera footage.... archive.md/zyy62#selectio…

... but the "dry run" practice done days before w/ Osundairo brothers WAS caught on video. archive.md/mJTUm 🤣🤣🤣

Poetry.

Abimbola Osundairo testified during the second day of the Jussie Smollett trial proceedings.

Pictured: Mr. Osundairo as he arrived to the courthouse that day.

Abel Osundairo told the jury he met Jussie Smollett before "Empire," but got a job on the show because of Smollett putting in a good word, which in turn made Abel inclined to help Smollett with fitness/drugs/etc.

Then came the scheme. “He explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up.” -- Abel Osundairo. archive.md/qK1vW#selectio…

“Might need your help on the low, You around to meet up and talk face to face?” texted Smollett. archive.md/ArHGx#selectio…

How meticulous was Jussie Smollett in his staging of the hate crime against himself?

According to the Osundairo brothers testimony: very meticulous.

(Osundairo brother gives his account of how the January 29th "hate crime" against Jussie Smollett went down) archive.md/Sonxo#selectio…

December 2nd, 2021. The 3rd full day of the trial, but fourth day overall of the proceedings if you count the jury selection day.

"This morning, Jussie Smollett raised his fist as he walked into the Cook County Courthouse for Day 4 of his trial." -- via twitter.com/SandraTorresNB…

Courtroom art depictions of the Osundairo brothers. Adding it to the Jussie Smollett thread for the sake of pizazz.

Jussie Smollett's lawyers tried to discredit the intentions of Osundairo brothers on cross-examination during the trial.

In a "throw a bunch of accusations and see if anything sticks" fashion.

Osundairo: "Jussie Smollett was my friend" archive.md/Gf7kR#selectio…
Jussie's Lawyer: "Yeah but you wanted to do butt stuff with him, i bet." archive.md/R17wQ

("being gay for Jussie" and "homophobia" are both insinuated at times, here, despite the contradiction in that)

Smollett even thought of the red hats and Trump supporter angle

The Osundairo testimony included this interesting tidbit about them only placing the rope "around" Smollett's face

**as in (potentially) Jussie had to put the rope on himself from the very beginning.

The Smollett defense lawyer tried to imply Osundairo brother was homophobic on the basis of a **2013 tweet** about Frank Ocean.

On December 2nd 2021 there was some kind of drama where the Smollett defense attorney accused the trial judge of lunging at her and making faces (?) at the defense.

So that was weird.

On December 6th 2021 Jussie Smollett took the stand and testified in his own trial.

Apparently special prosecutor Dan Webb is the King of lawyering because people touted his track record when proceedings started

"Jussie Smollett arrives at court. His attorneys are expected to continue presenting their case to jurors, and there’s the possibility Smollett himself may take the stand." -- twitter.com/MeredithBarack/ on December 6th when Smollett did end up testifying.

Here's a courtroom drawing of Jussie Smollett on the stand in his own trial.

Before Smollett testified:
-- Defense called a hotel security guard witness who said he felt "pressured" to say attackers were black, says they were really white
-- Brett Mahoney, executive producer for "Empire" said Smollett was the one who wanted to keep the hate mail private.

Jussie Smollett's trial testimony started off with the usual yada yada. Family background, how he became involved with "Empire" TV show.

Jussie Smollett's testimony had claims about drugs and gay stuff he did with Abimbola (Abel) Osundario. There's contradictions, but similarities to be found, interwoven through both Jussie's and Abel's testimonies.

But as a point of focus: to counter the claims of that Jussie Smollett did a "dry run" of the hate crime staging -- he said he drove around Chicago all the time, smoking weed w/ Abel

Also Ola Osundairo, Abel's brother, was NOT friendly with Jussie Smollett... or something like that.

(Smollett's narrative tried to establish Ola's background as an aggressor who'd want to ambush Smollett, is why it's mentioned.)

> Smollett needed to lose weight
> Hired Abel Osundairo at same rate as previous fitness trainer
> Jussie throws in a line about a "illegal herbal supplement" in Nigeria. (Abel says there's no such thing? And also Jussie can't recall the name of it later)

A jury was (for the most part) not convinced by Smollett's testimony

On Walgreens eggs and Subway sandwiches at 2 AM on a cold Chicago night

"Did you know the manager of the Subway? Did they help you plan some elaborate hoax?"

"Are you rushing her [the Subway employee] in this video?"

This was Jussie Smollett's summary of the staged hate crime attack, according to his testimony on the stand

The last part of Jussie Smollett's initial testimony on December 6th 2021 involved his tenuous "cooperation" with the police.

Before starting the day of December 7th in the Smollett trial: please enjoy these lovely courtroom depictions.

Anyway the big moment of the day was when Jussie Smollett got offended at prosecutor Webb for quoting Jussie's own usage of the n-word.

Other than that? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A last-minute accusation that the Osundairo brothers asked for a million dollar payout from Smollett in exchange for not testifying didn't sway the jury either

December 8th 2021. The closing arguments.

Prosecutors had more to work with, whereas the defense had few new points of dispute to offer other than blowing smoke and smearing the Osundairo brothers.

Anyway on December 9th 2021 Jussie Smollett was found guilty on five out of six disorderly conduct charges for filing a false police report and faking a hate crime in January 2019.