Thread by @jmetr22b

We are back in the #Smollett trial. Next defense witness is Brett Mahoney, who worked on the "Empire" set.

Mahoney was the show's executive producer and later "showrunner," writing scripts and working with director and editors to put everything together for the studios. He worked directly with Smollett, including on episodes Jussie directed

Mahoney testifying about the threatening letter sent to the "Empire" set. "We were obviously all very upset about the letter. No one thinks that doing the job that Jussie was doing that he would be the focus of this hate mail."

Mahoney says the letter was submitted to authorities to determine where it came from and whether it was actually a threat. As for Jussie, Mahoney said, "He didn’t want a lot of attention around the letter." They beefed up on-set security for him.

"I thin that the only complaint (from Smollett) was that he felt like it was too much," Mahoney starts to testify, before prosecutors object to him talking about how Smollett felt. Objection sustained.

On cross now by prosecutor Sam Mendenhall, who is showing Mahoney his own tweet after the attack, which said it was "an attack on everything that's great about America...We stand with you." The point being that Smollett was his friend and he supports him.

Q: Mr. Smollett asked you if you would come and testify on his behalf, correct?
Yes.
Q: You didn’t have any plans to come to Chicago otherwise?
Very true.
Q: You flew over 2,000 miles to be here, to support a friend.
Right.

Mahoney says his comment was a reaction to a "series of negatives tweets" attacking Jussie after the incident. "I felt that no one was standing up for him ... as a lawyer, I believe in innocent until proven guilty. I felt that a lot of people were making assumptions."

That is it for Mahoney. We're in another 10 minute recess.