routinely, drive around smoking, sometimes do it by himself, with bola. too many times to count were his words. separately after an alleged hate crime letter was sent about a week prior, smollett said he was offered security but refused it. the reason that s important is because the prosecution has argued one of his main motivators for allegedly staging this hate crime was because he believed empire wasn t taking the threats against him seriously. smollett tried to he testified that he hired the other osundairo brother to be his trainer. am i correct? but he repeatedly asked to also be his security guard. what point was he trying to make there? reporter: that s right. so this goes back to the point of when the alleged hate crime letter was received, and smollett testified that bola had previously asked smollett to be his security, so much so to the point that smollett thought it was a running joke. but that after this letter was received, those asks only
because he was worried that it would show extensive communications with bola osundairo in the days leading up to the alleged hate crime attack. smollett said no because at that point, bola was not a factor in any sort of issue at the time. it s really risky to put a defendant on the stand. why did the defense do that, and what were they trying to prove, omar? reporter: for one, they were trying to push back on some of the major points in the prosecution s case. for one, they went back or smollett took jurors back to the car ride where the osundairo brothers had testified was when smollett first brought up this alleged scheme, and the defense attorney asked him if that s what happened. and smollett said no. all they did was drive around and smoke blunts. now, when the defense attorney specifically pushed in and said at any point in time, did you talk to bola osundairo about a hoax, he answered emphatically no. smollett said he would do this
how he looked on the gma interview after the beat down. he looked good. smollett said he had good hair hollywood and lighting. he said the police changed his words in some of their transcripts. police testified that jussie smollett referred to the osundairo brothers black as sin. he said he would never say those words because his mother is a very dark skinned woman. the jury could begin deliberating tomorrow. martha: thanks, matt. let s bring in jonathan turley, george washington university attorney and raymond lopez calling on mayor lightfoot to do more on the crime crisis in chicago. more than 1,000 homicides this year. let me go to jonathan turley with your thoughts on all of this as you look at the cross
certifiserious lynching. he did tell jurors he took it off at one point, only to put it back on because his manager said the police needed to see the evidence. now, before cross-examination began, the defense went through piece by piece some of the major points of the prosecution s case in this. specifically they went back to the car ride the osundairo brothers where he initially proposed the fake attack and that is what happened. smollett testified that didn t happen at all. they drove around and smoked blunt. he asked if at any time he talked to abimbola osundairo about a hate crime and he said no. at the empire studios, he said he was offered security and was denied it.