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“I’ve been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one,” theEmpireactor said in brief remarks to reporters at the Cook County courthouse in Chicago. He added, “I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of doing what I was accused of.”
Two men who were acquaintances of Smollett later were arrested and questioned but released after police said the men indicated they worked with Smollett to stage the incident.
The state’s attorney’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s inquiry on whether prosecutors still believe Smollett staged the attack, as police Superintendent Eddie Johnson earlier had alleged in a news conference.
Jussie Smollett.
It was not immediately clear whether Smollett forfeited the $10,000 he put up to post bail or his full $100,000 bond.
Smollett’s attorney Patricia Brown Holmes told reporters Tuesday that Smollett had agreed to voluntarily forfeit his bond and cited his record for community service. “There is no ‘deal,'” she said. “The state dismissed the charges.”
After a police investigation, Smollett was accused of staging the attack with the alleged assailants’ participation and charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct related to falsifying the police report.
Holmes said Smollett’s version of events was true, and said thattwo brothers who were acquaintances of the actor, Abimbola “Abel” and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, attacked him. But she added, “We don’t want to try them in the press any more than we wanted to get tried in the press.”
Neither of them has been charged.
“The two men who attacked him have indicated that they attacked him, so we already know who attacked him,” Holmes told reporters. She also addressed a$3,500 checkthat police claimed was Smollett’s payment to the brothers for their part in the attack, saying, “It was for nutrition and training. They were his trainers.”
FOX Entertainment and 20th Century FOX Television, which jointly produceEmpire, on Tuesday issued a statement saying, “Jussie Smollett has always maintained his innocence and we are gratified that all charges against him have been dismissed.”
source: people.com
