Media Claim Two MAGA Fans Attacked Actor. Here Is The Full Story.

[Pony]

Ace hardware is going to break this case. As soon as they place one of the brothers there buying the noose, Jussie is finished.

I read they have the receipt from the brothers.

[Pony]

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Ruth Brown - The New York Post




The Jussie Smollett case will go before a grand jury early next week, according to a new report.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ that a panel will hear the case, but the outlet didn’t elaborate on who is facing charges — or what they might be.

The “Empire” star told cops he was assaulted in Chicago on Jan. 29 by two men spewing racist and homophobic slurs at him — but his story has since come under fire as sources have alleged to news outlets that he actually paid some pals to stage the whole thing.

Cops arrested brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo on Wednesday after they were captured on security footage near the scene — but they were released Friday without charges, and police then said evidence they gave has shifted the “trajectory of the investigation.”

Cops are also now investigating whether magazines with missing pages that they found when raiding the brothers’ homes are connected to a threatening letter sent to Smollett a weeks before the attack with cut-out letters reading, “You will die black f–,” according to TMZ.

Smollett originally made it clear to cops that he’d sign complaints against his assailants — but once the Osundairos were arrested, he said he knew them and felt bad for them, and refused to press charges, sources tell TMZ.

Police originally found the star’s story suspect when he brought them to the scene of the incident and pointed out a camera noting the whole attack was caught on video — and were also suspicious of the claim that his assailants shouted, “This is MAGA country,” because “Not a single Trump supporter watches ‘Empire,'” the gossip site reports.

Sources have told CBS Chicago that Smollett paid the bodybuilding brothers $3,500 for the attack — with the promise of another $500 to come — and even coughed up the cash for the rope the duo purchased for the assault.

Smollett denies playing any role in the attack.

His lawyers said in statement over the weekend that one of the brothers was his personal trainer, and the star finds it “impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity.”

[RBP]

I read they have the receipt from the brothers.

It's the only time we can say "the brothers" without being accused of using racist language.

[Pony]

It's the only time we can say "the brothers" without being accused of using racist language.

Are you assuming I knew they were related?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ that a panel will hear the case, but the outlet didn’t elaborate on who is facing charges — or what they might be.

I bet I can guess

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By the TMZ Staff


Jussie Smollett rehearsed the "attack" against him days before the incident and it was all staged for the camera, this according to what the 2 brothers told cops.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, Abel and Ola Osundairo told cops they got in a car with Jussie and scouted a location, settling on the one right outside the actor's apartment. The brothers said Jussie chose the spot because he believed a camera would have captured the action.

Our sources say the brothers told police Jussie said he wanted to make it a "physical thing," but not to the point he'd be seriously injured.

On the night Jussie says he was attacked, the brothers claim they showed up at the scene but were extremely nervous because, just as they played out the scene, a car drove by and they were worried they'd be ID'd.

Our sources say the brothers performed per the rehearsal -- they screamed out they recognized Jussie from "Empire" and then hurled the racist n-word and the homophobic f-word.

The brothers told cops they "made contact with Jussie's face" but it was "weak." They said they didn't know how he suffered the bruises but the staged fight was not designed to injure him.



Check out this video of Abel ... if he wanted, he could do a lot of damage.

TMZ broke the story ... when cops arrived, Jussie took them down to the area he said the "attack" went down and pointed to the camera, saying it was good the incident was captured on video. What he didn't know was that the camera was pointed in the wrong direction and didn't capture the incident.

[RBP]

Just wow. What will the screechers do now?

[Pony]

Just wow. What will the screechers do now?

Immediately find something new to screech about so this quickly goes away.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

[Hal-9000]

Yes when the brothers are released without being charged and the case now appears before a Grand Jury...Jussie may want to check out the acting jobs in Nigeria.

And it's a little ironic. If it plays out the way I'm suspecting it will, the entire set up was based on Jussie's racism against people who don't support his political party, or watch Empire

His world view is so constricted he never thought of enlisting white people as the assailants, which in my mind was the first Jenga piece to get pulled.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Stephanie Wash, Josh Margolin and Bill Hutchinson - ABC News


The two brothers who were interrogated by police investigating the alleged Chicago street attack on actor Jussie Smollett claim they helped him concoct the assault after he became upset that a letter threatening him, sent to the "Empire" show's studio, did not get enough attention, sources told ABC News on Monday.

Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo have also told investigators that Smollett paid them to help him orchestrate and stage the Jan. 29 attack that he said occurred near his Chicago apartment, sources said.

A letter threatening Smollett was sent Jan. 22 to the Fox studio in Chicago where "Empire" is filmed, police said. The letter contained threatening language and was laced with a powdery substance investigators believe was likely crushed-up Tylenol, police said.

The Osundairo brothers told the investigator that Smollet allegedly decided to stage an attack on himself because he felt the letter didn't get enough attention, the sources told ABC News.

Detectives are actively investigating the account of Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, but thus far police have not independently verified the allegations, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.

The Osundairo brothers agreed to cooperate with authorities after detectives confronted them with evidence that they bought the rope -- allegedly used in an attack that Smollett described to police as laced with racial and homophobic slurs -- at a Chicago hardware store, sources said. Smollett also claimed the attackers shouted "MAGA country," an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again."

No one has been charged in connection with the case.

"We are not racist. We are not homophobic and we are not anti-Trump. We were born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens," Osundairo brothers said in a statement to CBS Chicago affiliate WBBM that has been confirmed by ABC News.

Detectives have now shifted the investigation towards determining whether Smollett made up the entire story, sources said.

Anne Kavanagh, a spokeswoman for Smollett and his legal team, said the actor had no plans to meet Monday with Chicago police, who said they are "eager" to speak with him again about the latest developments in the investigation. Kavanagh said Smollett's attorneys are keeping an active dialogue going with Chicago police on behalf of the actor.

The latest twist in the probe came after Smollett hit back at the suggestion that the incident was a hoax, and expressed disbelief that the brothers could have been involved.

“As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with," Smollett attorneys Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson said in a statement Saturday. "He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.

“One of these purported suspects was Jussie’s personal trainer who he hired to ready him physically for a music video," the statement continued. "It is impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity."

The attorneys said that Smollett has been cooperating with the police throughout the investigation.

After initially being considered persons of interest, the Osundairo brothers were detained and became potential suspects, police said. When they were threatened with battery and hate crimes charges, they agreed to work with detectives, sources told ABC News.

The dramatic shift in the probe is the latest in the fast-changing story that started with Smollett reporting to police that he was attacked in the early morning hours of Jan. 29.

By Saturday evening, however, Chicago police said they were "eager to speak to Jussie Smollett" after the interrogation of the Osundairo brothers, who police said are U.S. citizens of Nigerian descent.

"We have been in touch with Smollett's attorneys," Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told ABC News Sunday afternoon, adding that investigators "are waiting on whether they’re going to get a response from his attorney.”

Guglielmi said the department contacted the actor's lawyers Friday night.

"We made our intentions clear," he said.

On Sunday afternoon, Guglielmi posted a statement on Twitter, saying, "While we are not in a position to confirm, deny or comment on the validity of what's been unofficially released, there are some developments in this investigation and detectives have some follow-ups to complete which include speaking to the individual who reported the incident."

A spokesperson for Fox, which broadcasts "Empire," declined comment on Saturday night.

Early Saturday, after the brothers were released, police said they had new information that “could change the story entirely.”

Police confirmed that Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo were the two men seen in surveillance images from the night of the alleged incident. They were taken into custody on Wednesday night and interviewed by detectives in the following days.

Based on the video evidence that police discovered, it did not indicate anyone else was there at the scene of the alleged incident, police said.

But on Saturday, after their release the night before, police said the brothers were no longer potential suspects and again persons of interest, saying that they may still have information that is helpful to the investigation.

Smollett told police that on Jan. 29, he was walking on a street near his apartment when he was attacked by two men. The attackers allegedly shouted racist and homophobic slurs before hitting him, pouring “an unknown chemical substance” on him — possibly bleach — and wrapping a rope around his neck, he told detectives.

Police confirmed phone records show that during the attack, Smollett was on the phone with Brandon Moore, his music manager. Both claimed that the alleged attackers yelled "MAGA country."

While Guglielmi said on Saturday that he could not speak on what the new information was, he said that detectives had “shifted the trajectory” of the investigation. Though he did not say whether Smollett spoke to the men that night — one of them had previously appeared on “Empire” — he said it will also be central to the investigation whether they spoke to or saw Smollett.

Police raided the home of the Osundairo brothers Wednesday night to search for possible evidence and retrieved shoes, electronic devices, bleach and a red hat, among other items, according to photos of an inventory log confirmed to ABC News. The inventory log, first reported by a local CBS station, also contained a description for an item that said "Script-Empire."

It’s unclear whether forensic results have come back on any of the seized items on the inventory log.

[lost in melb.]

What he didn't know was that the camera was pointed in the wrong direction and didn't capture the incident

Will actors never learn. You always need a competent director! Cheapskate!

[RBP]

Local news reported they also seized magazines that match those used in the threat letter, and reported that Smollett has retained a "crisis management firm".

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Tucker Carlson | Fox News




When TV star Jussie Smollett claimed to be the victim of a racist anti-gay attack at the hands of two Trump supporters, virtually the entire news media and a parade of politicians immediately believed him and demanded the rest of us do so as well.

Now, that story is coming completely apart, with police sources saying Smollett likely orchestrated the entire attack himself. But while we wait for the facts to come to light, it is worth remembering that almost 3,000 people were shot in the City of Chicago last year -- women, small children -- sometimes alone and sometimes in groups. Many hundreds of them died, and not a single one received anything like the attention the media has lavished on a relatively minor assault alleged by Smollett.

On the other hand, none of Chicago's 3,000 shootings were even half as useful as Smollett's story.

The Smollett story had everything for a national media that long ago gave up the pretense of gathering news. Journalism is now explicitly a political job, the point of which is to enforce cultural orthodoxies and punish enemies.

Jussie Smollett was the perfect vehicle for both of those things.

Journalists pretended to be horrified as they recounted what he said happened to him, but secretly, they were thrilled.

“There are many indications of a hate crime here. They are looking for two suspects who were wearing apparently wearing "Make America Great Again" hats though that has not yet been officially confirmed,” said MSNBC National Correspondent Miguel Almaguer.

Liz Plank, host of Vox Media’s “Consider It,” just knew President Trump had something to do with the attack.

“We don't know what happened to Jussie, but what we do know is that racism is alive and well in this country,” Plank said. “There is real evidence of people who have done these crimes, who cite that the President has inspired them.”

Jonathan Capehart, of the Washington Post, agreed with Plank. President Trump was most certainly to blame.

“The fact that [the attackers] reportedly said, ‘This is MAGA country,’ adds to sort of the atmosphere of menace that African-Americans in particular and people of color in general have felt since the advent of the Trump administration," Capehart mused.

Finally, there was this observation from CNN’s Brooke Baldwin: “He said his attackers hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him. This is America in 2019.”

Oh, and if you had questions, much less doubts, the elites were poised to attack you.

“And the media has really cast so much doubt on his story which I find so personally offensive that a gay black man is targeted and then suddenly he becomes the victim of people's disbelief,” said actress Sara Gilbert. “It is so outrageous to me.”

To the national media, Smollett's story was the perfect metaphor for the Trump era. It was also pretty clearly a total crock. Smollett's account began to fall apart within hours after a series of leaks from the obviously skeptical Chicago Police Department.

His handlers paired him with a network anchor they could rely on, with a 16-minute interview with Robin Roberts of "Good Morning, America." Roberts surely knew there was ample evidence that Smollett was lying, but she decided to ignore that. Instead, Roberts colluded with him.

She nodded empathetically as Smollett wept on camera. She asked no significant follow-up questions. The two parted like old friends. Both Smollett and Roberts turned out to be talented actors. Check out their performance on YouTube before it is scrubbed. You will never watch ABC News again. Virtually every word they utter is dishonest.

“If I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot much more, a lot more, and that says a lot about the place that we are in our country right now,” Smollett told Roberts. “The fact that we have these fear mongers, these people that are trying to separate us and it is just not okay.”

Who is dividing us? And who exactly is the victim in all of this? While Smollett claims that he is the victim, he tells us that he represents the most despised and unfashionable groups in America, that is why bigots doubt his story. The rest of us nod as if this was true because we are required to do that. That is how dishonest our society has become. Everyone must lie all the time. We know the rules, we have no choice.

The fact is, the much-hyped epidemic of hate crimes we have heard so much about essentially is made up. The premise is absurd. America is not a hateful country, it is the most welcoming place on Earth that is why even as our children learn from their teachers what a bigoted country this is, millions continue to stream in from Africa and Latin America for a better life here.

So why does the left insist on inventing bigoted bogeymen waiting around every dark corner? Maybe because stoking race hatred ensures continued power for the Democratic Party. Divided populations are easier to manipulate and rule. There would be no Democratic coalition without racial animosity. It is what holds their constituencies together. That is the point of identity politics. It is why they are forever reopening the wound.

But the cost to the country has been high. Hate hoaxes make ethnic groups fear and distrust each other. That is a dangerous thing to do in a country that is becoming more diverse by the day.

Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Feb. 18, 2019