‘I am making this statement so everyone else knows. They will not get away with this’: Text from Jussie Smollett a focus trial's second day
CHICAGO — As rumors of a hoax were swirling around Jussie Smollett’s claim he was the victim of a hate crime attack in downtown Chicago, the “Empire” actor allegedly sent a text to one of the two acquaintances being questioned by police.
“Brother....I love you,” read Smollett’s text to Abimbola Osundairo on the afternoon of Feb. 14, 2019. “I stand with you. I know 1000% you and your brother did nothing wrong and never would. I am making this statement so everyone else knows. They will not get away with this. Please hit me when they let you go. I am behind you fully.”
The text, which had never before been made public, was shown to jurors Tuesday on the second day of Smollett’s trial on charges that he hired Osundairo and his younger brother, Olabinjo, to commit a phony racist and homophobic attack on Smollett in January 2019.
Testifying as the first witness for prosecutors, Chicago police Detective Michael Theis, one of the lead investigators on the Smollett case, noted the unusual nature of Smollett’s insistence that he was “making a statement” about the brothers’ innocence, which he had never done before publicly, either before or
