Jussie Smollett REMOVED From "Empire" Over FELONY Arrest
Jussie Smollett REMOVED From "Empire" Over FELONY Arrest. The show Empire and its head staff have made the decision to remove Jussie Smollett following his released on $100,000 bond over an alleged hoax and false police report.The actor was allegedly dissatisfied with his salary and staged the social justice incident in order to gain leverage in negotiations or to amplify his press attention.Many people on the left and far left came to his defense even without evidence but as the police continue to release new statements and evidence it is becoming increasingly clear that this may turn out to be a proven hoax.
Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jesse Smollett has been removed from the last few episodes of Empire.
It was reported by the police in Chicago.
They believe the reason he staged this hoax was because he was dissatisfied with his salary.
And we have varying reports.
Some say he was making as much as $65,000 per episode, while others say it could be upwards of $125,000.
So he stands to lose a couple hundred thousand dollars over this.
But we do have other updates.
The proffer from his bond hearing shows that police had a witness and they were on to him probably from the get-go.
Based on the document released by the CPD, I believe the police are acting like they didn't know it was a hoax for a while when they actually did.
We're also learning that one of the brothers was actually Jussie Smollett's drug dealer.
Today, let's take a look at the latest news on what happened starting with Jussie getting removed from his show.
But before we get started, make sure you follow us over at Mines.com slash Subverse, where we have set up a distributed newsroom.
We are going to be producing a Good News Wednesday segment, stories that are uplifting, because news is just kind of... it's kind of negative all the time, like this video is going to be.
But if you want to support these videos that I'm making now, just share the video on social media to help spread the message.
From the wrap, Fox removes Jussie Smollett from final two episodes of Empire, Season 5, following arrest.
In a statement, they said, The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us, read the statement from Empire co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, showrunner Brett Mahoney and executive producers Brian Grazer, Sana Hamri, Francie Calfo, and Dennis Hammer.
Jussie has been an important member of our Empire family for the past five years, and we care about him deeply.
The statement continued.
While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out.
We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show, and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of Jamal from the final two episodes of the season.
The story notes that the actor's bail was set at $100,000, with Smollett required to post $10,000 for release.
Within hours of his release, Smollett returned to work on the set of Fox's Empire.
His next court date has been set for Thursday, March 14th at 11.30am.
At the Chicago Police Press Conference, they said they believed his motive for staging this hoax was because he was dissatisfied with his salary.
But Insider reports he may be making $125,000 per episode, which means him being written out of these episodes could cost him $250,000, it would seem, should these allegations prove true.
His attempt at making money through a social justice hoax backfired, and he's going to lose money.
From Insider, a well-placed source told HuffPost reporter Yashir Ali that Smollett was paid $65,000 per episode for his co-starring role on the most recent season of Empire.
But the Hollywood Reporter places Smollett's salary at $125,000 per episode.
On average, HuffPost noted, there are 18 episodes of Empire per season.
Yesterday, we saw video of Jussie Smollett leaving police custody after posting Bond.
And after this, we heard a statement from Smollett.
Mr. Smollett is a young man of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing, read a statement sent out late Thursday on behalf of the Empire actor.
Today we witness an organized law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system, the hyperbolic statement added.
The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett, and notably, on the eve of a mayoral election.
It also noted tossing more political edge into an already sharply political affair.
This morning, it was reported that Jussie Smollett apologizes to the Empire cast and crew, but insists that he is innocent.
Jesse Smollett apologized to the cast and crew of Empire on Thursday night for any embarrassment the recent allegations may have caused, but he maintained that he was innocent, a person at the meeting told CNN.
The person at the meeting said they were shocked and dismayed that Smollett stuck to his story of innocence.
For the most part, the source said, Smollett paraphrased what was in the statement that his attorney put out that afternoon, blaming the legal system and the media for his woes.
Now before we get to the proffer from the police, which has some pretty interesting new information, I want to highlight this story from the Chicago Sun-Times.
They say, things could get worse for Smollett if the feds get involved.
Smollett has been charged in state court with felony disorderly conduct for allegedly making a false police report.
He claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack at the hands of two men January 29th in Streeterville.
If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison or a punishment as lenient as probation.
But it has not escaped notice that the FBI has been involved in the three-week investigation that generated international headlines.
And prosecutors told a judge Thursday that the FBI is conducting a forensic analysis of a threatening letter Smollett received at the Cinespace Chicago film studios on January 22nd.
Meanwhile, the comments made by police and prosecutors Thursday suggest criminal charges could be available to federal prosecutors should they choose to pursue them.
The defense attorney said, of course, the feds would have to make sure they could prove their case.
Smollett maintains his innocence.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters Thursday that this stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary, so he concocted a story about being attacked.
He also said the threatening letter addressed to Smollett was part of the ruse.
That could expose Smollett to a charge of mail fraud, the attorney said.
He used the mail, Defense Attorney Michael Edinger said.
That's a crime.
Defense Attorney Joseph Lopez said Smollett could also be charged with communicating a threat through the mail or even with lying to federal authorities.
And he said federal sentencing guidelines suggest such charges could put Smollett in prison for years.
Because of dual sovereignty, double jeopardy wouldn't prevent charges in state and federal court, he said.
He could be charged in both places, theoretically.
While Lopez suspects the feds won't bring a case against Smollett, the actor's celebrity status could pressure prosecutors.
And Ettinger pointed to the many sources the Chicago Police Department deployed while looking into his claims.
You've got to have a deterrent effect, Ettinger said.
You can't let people do this.
But there was more extremely important information in the proffer released by the Chicago Police.
One bit of information, notably, Jussie Smollett allegedly bought Mali from Nigerian brother, Mali a reference to ecstasy.
According to the bond proffer issued by prosecutors in the Cook County State Attorney's Office, Smollett first met Abel Osundairo in the fall of 2017.
Osundairo appeared on Empire, and the two developed a friendship that included socializing and exercising together.
Osundaru also worked as a stand-in character for Smollett's love interest on the Fox show.
Prosecutors claim Smollett purchased designer drugs and requested him to provide the drug multiple times since the spring of 2018.
Sam Charles of the Chicago Sun-Times posted an image yesterday of Jussie Smollett's bond proffer.
And it's got more interesting information in it.
They mention that Abel was asked to provide Molly to Smollett, but they also mention, after Abel confirmed the date and time of his trip, Defendant Smollett texted Abel stating, The proffer claims that Smollett asked the two brothers to catch his attention by yelling a racial and homophobic slur.
Defendant Smollett further detailed that he wanted Abel to attack him, but not hurt him too badly and give him a chance to appear to fight back.
Defendant Smollett also included that he wanted OLA to place a rope around his neck, pour gasoline on him, and yell, They claim that he provided them with a $100 bill to purchase the rope, gasoline, and ski masks, and red baseball caps which resemble the ones that say, Now this is where it gets interesting.
They state, while the staged attack was occurring, a witness, who is an employee of NBC News Chicago, had just parked and exited her vehicle just around the corner from the location of the staged attack.
This witness indicated that she heard nothing at the time the staged attack was occurring, despite the fact that Defendant Smollett told CPD detectives that his attackers were yelling racial and homophobic slurs at him, and he was in turn yelling back at them.
The stage attack lasted 45 seconds, and it was just outside the view of the desired nearby camera that Smollett had pointed out to the brothers approximately 15 hours earlier.
The proffer mentions, Smollett picked up the brothers and he brought them to where he wanted them to stage the attack.
They say, Further details were provided by Smollett, which included that the staged attack was to take place near the stairs on the southwest corner of New and North Water Street at 10 p.m.
the following night.
Smollett also instructed the brothers not to bring their cell phones with them.
Smollett directed the brothers' attention toward a surveillance camera on the corner, which he believed would capture the incident.
There was a change in the plan that bleach was going to be used rather than gasoline during the simulated attack.
Smollett then drove the brothers home and provided them with a $3,500 personal check made payable to Abel, which was backdated to January 23rd, 2019.
These are claims made by the Chicago police, but they're particularly definitive.
They claim to have a witness.
If they had a witness around the corner from the time the attack occurred, I'd have to assume they knew from the get-go this was a hoax, especially considering what was going on with the letter.
The police claimed that it was only at the 47th hour of detaining the two brothers that they decided to cooperate, and this changed the trajectory of the investigation.
But if they had video surveillance footage of Jussie Smollett pointing out the camera, they had a witness claiming she heard nothing, I'd have to assume they thought this was a hoax from the get-go, especially considering statements made by Jussie Smollett when the police first questioned them.
He apparently pointed out the camera and claimed That was, you know, thankfully, filming what happened, but it was pointed in the wrong direction.
And police said this was suspicious, that he knew where the camera was.
It would seem that Jussie, assuming these allegations are true, is not particularly intelligent, and he made several mistakes.
He pointed out a camera that he wanted to film him later?
Did he not think they would have him on camera pointing at the camera and showing up with the brothers, who then are there later attacking him?
If he wanted the attack on camera, then they would have known immediately it was a hoax.
This thing was so absurdly, so poorly planned.
He even paid them with a check, which is easily retrieved.
They could get copies and images.
The banks keep records of these things.
The brothers were arrested?
How would this not have fallen apart?
It's extremely surprising to me.
And again, the fact that they had a witness, that's surprising as well, because we didn't know this was true.
Police said these two people are persons of interest, and many believed there was no one else located near the scene, but in fact there was an employee of NBC Chicago.
This took place not too far away from NBC Tower, and many employees worked throughout the night.
I find it hard to believe that the police would put out false information, but you never know.
It'll be interesting to see what Smollett's defense is going to be, because they claim to have pretty definitive information, and the brothers are apparently cooperating.
So let me know what you think in the comments below.
We'll keep the conversation going.
You can follow me over at Mines at Mines.com slash TimCast.
Stay tuned, new videos every day at 4 p.m.
Eastern, and more videos coming up on my second channel, YouTube.com slash TimCastNews at 6 p.m.
