Jussie Smollett took the stand at his trial on Monday, offering a vastly different testimony from that of the Osundario brothers, his alleged attackers. According to ABC7 Chicago, the brothers stated Smollett paid them to carry out a fake hate crime against himself. Smollet noted that wasn’t true but revealed he would do drugs and masturbate with one of the brothers.
In January 2019, Smollett claimed he was jumped by two homophobic white men who assaulted him and put a noose around his neck outside of a downtown Chicago Subway restaurant.
During Smollett’s testimony, the actor spoke about his upbringing as a child actor to how he became Jamal Lyon on Empire. Following that, Smollett detailed the pressures of being an openly gay African American male character and collecting a $100,000 per episode salary.
Smollet stated he met Bola Osundario through a security contact. He said Bola offered to be his bodyguard. The two would do drugs and hang out, one day leading to a gay bathhouse to book private rooms. Smollett would also state he and Bola would drive around and smoke weed together, using those moments to count to a presumed “dry run” as presented by prosecutors.
Smollett will return to the stand Tuesday (Dec. 7) for more cross-examination and questioning.
