Jussie Smollett’s lawyer has finally offered an explanation for why he told police he thought his Nigerian attackers were white: they could have been wearing make-up.
In an interview on Today, Tina Glandian claimed that Smollett did not recognize the Abel and Ola Osundairo when they attacked him on January 29 and that it still has not been proven that it was them, despite the fact that Smollett identified a photograph of the pair as his attackers before he was ever arrested and even though they had just been on the phone with him.
When he learned it was them once they were in custody, Glandian said, Smollett ‘found it hard to believe’ because he had told that he could make out one had ‘pale or white skin’ around his eyes beneath the ski mask he was wearing.
It was not a lie, she insisted, adding that the reason for it could have been that the brothers were in ‘disguise’.
‘He did tell police that from what he saw, he thought it was white or pale skin, that’s what he initially said.
‘Obviously, you can disguise that. You can put make-up on,’ she said.
She went on to point to a 2016 YouTube video of Abel Osundairo, the brother in question, where he is wearing white make-up to perform a Joker monologue as potential proof of her theory.
‘There’s a video, it took me all of five minutes when I was looking into the brothers, to of one of the brothers in whiteface doing the Joker monologue,’ she said.
Jussie Smollett’s lawyer Tina Glandian suggested on Thursday that the reason he told police his Nigerian attackers were white was because they ‘might have been wearing white face’ and had disguised themselves. Her evidence of the theory is 2016 video of Abel Osundairo (right) dressed up as the Joker
Glandian, who works for celebrity favorite Mark Geragos and has assisted him on cases involving Chris Brown and Kesha, said she had her own ‘theory’ about why the brothers attacked Smollett but would not share it, saying it was ‘speculation’.
The brothers told police that Smollett paid them to carry out the attack after being held in custody without charges for 47 hours.
Their interviews took place in a hotel – which police paid for – and were conducted after they had returned from Nigeria on a two-week family trip.
But Smollett’s lawyers have a different explanation for why they were in contact on the night of the attack, other than to plot it.
The reason they were on the phone an hour before Smollett was attacked, Glandian said, was because they were planning his personal training schedule and nutrition plan.
She even said that it was Abel who told him to go out for food – a new claim which Smollett left out of his many police and media statements.
Even with all her possible explanations in mind, she questioned if it even was the pair who attacked Smollett in the first place.
You can disguise that. You can put make-up on
‘When you say it’s undisputed, we’ve actually, there’s been more info leaked than we have actually received from the prosecution in this case which is a little absurd.
‘When you say we know, we believe that but a lot of the information that the CPD has put out there has turned out not to be evidence so we do have to question it,’ she said.
Smollett’s other lawyer confirmed in court on Tuesday that it was the men who jumped him, and the actor himself identified them unknowingly last month during na appearance on Good Morning America by saying it was ‘absolutely’ the men who attacked him when shown a surveillance image of them.
He did not know at the time that police had the brothers in custody and they were confessing to the hoax plot.
On Thursday, Glandian made even more previously unheard claims including that it was Abel, one of the brothers, who told Smollett to go out at 2am and get food.
Smollett claimed on television and in police records that he went to Subway for a tuna salad because he was hungry and there was no food at home.
But Glandian said on Thursday he had been told by Abel to eat ‘four eggs’, as part of his nutrition plan, and had none in the house.
‘He had to eat four eggs so he said I don’t think I have any. I’ll have to run out and get some,’ she said.
Glandian said Smollett ‘had a hard time believing’ that it was the brothers who attacked him afterwards and suggested that it may not even have been them despite the Empire actor pointing to surveillance footage of them and saying it was them who attacked him
Police released this image of the brothers walking near the scene on the night of the attack which Smollett said, without realizing they had been arrested, was ‘absolutely’ an image of the men who attacked him
In his Good Morning America interview, Smollett said he’d first tried to go to Walgreens but proceeded on to Subway when it was closed.
Glandian also denied prosecutors’ claims that Smollett got off scot-free in exchange for community service and forfeiting a $10,000 bond and said he chose to do both because that’s the kind of person he is.
When Smollett surrendered himself to police on February 21, he was not placed in handcuffs and did not get put in a cell
‘He had to do nothing. There were no obligations, no conditions. These are the things that he chose to do because this is his character,’ she said.
On Tuesday, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said in a statement that the charges ‘would not have been dropped’ had he not complied with the terms of their agreement.
‘The charges were dropped in return for Mr. Smollet’s agreement to do community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the City of Chicago.
‘Without the completion of these terms, the charges would not have been dropped,’ their statement said.
Now, the entire office is facing a Department of Justice probe into why the case was handled the way it was.
President Trump decried it as an ’embarrassment to the nation’ and the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, amounted it to a ‘whitewash of justice’ that proved Smollett was treated gently by the system because he is a celebrity and a prominent figure in the city.
Despite insisting in multiple interviews on Tuesday that ‘thousands’ of other cases were handled in exactly the same way, Kim Foxx was scrambling to find examples at the same time to back up her case.
These are the emails exchanged between Tina Tchen and Kim Foxx on February 1, days after the incident on January 29 when Smollett was still being considered the victim of a hate crime
Tchen put one of Smollett’s relatives in touch with Foxx. Their texts are shown
Kim Foxx, the recused Cook County State’s Attorney who is facing scrutiny for her handling of the Jussie Smollett case, stood by her office’s decision on Wednesday and said Smollett got off because it was the lowest class of felony and he has no criminal background. She claims ‘thousands’ of other people have had the same treatment
This email was leaked on Wednesday which shows Foxx scrambling to find other examples to back up her office’s decision on Smollett
In an internal email to staff that was leaked, she asked ASA’s to come up with other cases which showed how they used their ‘discretion as prosecutors’.
She recused herself from the investigation in February after exchanging text messages with a member of Smollett’s family but never appointed a special prosecutor, a move which police unions and lawyers’ associations have called into question.
But on Thursday, Glandian denied that her client got special treatment and said there were no backroom discussions with Foxx or anyone else after he was charged.
Trump called the decision by local prosecutors ‘outrageous.’ It was not entirely clear if he was demanding further investigation or calling for new activity
‘Nothing improper was done.
‘I can’t speak to what other people did, not to my knowledge, not at our direction that had nothing to do with why prosecutors dismissed the case,’ she said.
She added that even though Smollett was telling the truth and had been genuinely attacked, the incident was not ‘that brutal’ and he would not be pushing for the brothers’ to face charges.
‘The attack pales in comparison to the attack on him by the mayor, the city and the press.
‘What he’s been through has really been much harsher than the attack. At this point, he has been victimized a lot more than what happened that night,’ she said.
Photos of Smollett show him posing alongside members and volunteers of Rainbow PUSH, an organization founded by Jesse Jackson to pursue social justice, civil rights and political activism as part of his ‘voluntary’ community service two days before he had the charges dropped
The actor is shown walking free from court on Tuesday after a sudden hearing where a judge agreed to the charges being dropped, sealed the case and which has since been wiped from record