Photo Credit: Evan Agostini, Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Jussie Smollett’s now been charged with a felony for filing a false police report this evening and now that things are heating up, his relationship with Fox seems to be cooling off. Twice, Fox made statements defending Smillett against claims his character may be written off of the show as recently as today stating “Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show,” a rep said. Now sources close to the situation are saying producers are “weighing whether to suspend the actor following his indictment.”
The attorney for the Nigerian brothers Olabinjo Osundairo and Abimbola Osundairo that Smollett allegedly paid to attack him, Gloria Schmidt spoke to reporters in front of a Chicago courthouse today said that the two men wanted to come clean today and not because of any persuasion from prosecutors. “There was never a change of heart,” Schmidt said. “There was a point where this story needed to be told, and they manned up and they said, ‘We’re gonna correct this.’ Plea deal, immunity, all of that – they don’t’ care about that.”
Smollett’s attorneys Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson made a statement in response to the charges promising to fight back. “Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense,” they added.
The bond hearing for Smollett is 1:30pm tomorrow and details will be updated as they come.
