Jussie Smollett hasn’t given up on clearing his name. Following a court hearing on Monday, Jussie, after being let out of jail on a $20,000 bond, denied the allegations that he staged a hate crime in January of 2019 for publicity gains.
In a video posted by TMZ, Jussie, 37, says to the camera that he doesn’t “claim to be innocent,” he is. Smollett admits that it’s “definitely frustrating” to be going through the court system again exactly a year and three days after his initial arraignment.
During a chat with the videographer, Jussie stated he was going to either “fight or die.” As it was previously reported, Jussie was fired from the set of Empire due to the faux-hate crime scandal, in which he was accused of hiring two Nigerian-American men to assault him in the streets of Chicago.
Jussie claimed they purported victims were two white men wearing “Make America Great Again” hats. When asked by the cameraman if the scandal has effected his life negatively, the actor stated that the answer to the question was “pretty obvious.”
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Tina Glandian, his attorney-at-law, stood alongside the actor as they landed back in LA following his court hearing. She noted to the reporters that Jussie was “holding up,” and would definitely get through it.
She also added that the “system” would eventually pan out in their favor. Moreover, she claims they’ll likely be able to have the case tossed out of court due to double jeopardy, which means an individual can’t be tried for the same crime more than once.
Furthermore, when asked about their strategy regarding the whole fiasco, Smollett claimed the “truth” was the best way to handle it. He added that they “know nothing about” the truth. At the beginning of 2019, Jussie told the Chicago Police Department that he was assaulted for being black and gay in the streets of Chicago.
Initially, the world was shocked to hear what happened and showed their support for him. However, investigators began to reveal their candid thoughts on the case, stating they had every right to believe Jussie played a role in his own attack.
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The charges were initially dropped until a special prosecutor picked up on them again in the “interest of justice.”
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