Jussie Smollett’s defense team let out a brutal cross-examination against the prosecution’s star witness on Thursday. The witness claimed the pair were dating, had masturbated together at a gay bathhouse, and the attack was fueled by a desire to be the actor’s security guard.
Abimbola Osundairo, 28, testified on the stand at a Chicago criminal court and was questioned for two hours by the actor’s defense attorney Shay Allen on day four of the trial.
Allen attempted to make Osundairo look like a liar, drug dealer, and opportunist who used his relationship with Smollett to further his career. He is also accused of telling the star he’d make this “all go away” and not testify if he and his brother, Olabinjo, were paid $1 million each.
“You told him if he gave you and your brother a million dollars each, you wouldn’t testify?”
Allen asked Osundairo, but his response was, “No.”
At the beginning of Allen’s cross-examination of the witness, she tried to claim that Smollett and Osundairo had a sexual relationship by suddenly asking when he and the actor started dating, the New York Post reported.
We were never dating,” said Osundairo, across the room, Smollett averted his gaze.
On Wednesday, Osundairo told jurors he and Smollett had gone to the Steamworks bathhouse together in Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood, a predominately gay community. On Thursday, Allen asked if gay pornography was played on the televisions inside the spa.
“I don’t recall,” Osundairo said.
“You don’t recall seeing gay pornography? … You don’t remember masturbating with him?” Allen questioned.
Osundairo said, “No.”
The attorney also asked if Smollett had a crush on him and if he thought “sexual tension” between them would further his acting career, in which Osundairo answered back that he “didn’t know” there was sexual tension.
Allen then brought up t that homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria, where the brothers have connections, and recalled the time Osundairo had called someone on the set of “Empire” a “fat.” This was to potentially claim that the hate crime was real and fueled by homophobia, but the prosecution successfully objected to the questions.
Osundairo and his brother are the focus of the tawdry maelstrom as the prosecution’s star witnesses. They had previously claimed to the police that Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the hate crime.
The defense argues that the attack wasn’t staged, and it was carried out because the brothers are homophobic or hoped to scare the actor into hiring Osundairo as his security guard for a $5,000 monthly salary.
Smollett now faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police and, if he is found guilty, faces three years in jail.
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