Jussie Smollett Tells Jury He Did Not Direct a Fake Attack on Himself

“I had never seen a gay man — let alone a gay Black man — portrayed ever,” Mr. Smollett said. “I really, really wanted to do it.”

The defense also called Anthony Moore, a security guard who worked at Mr. Smollett’s apartment building. Mr. Moore testified that he told the police that he saw the attackers flee the scene that night and identified one of them as a white male in a ski mask. (He said he could tell he was white because he shined a flashlight in his face.) Mr. Smollett had initially told police that one of his attackers was white, and then later said he was pale-skinned, something the police had pointed out as an inconsistency in his story.

“With the things that were being said, I made assumption they were white,” Mr. Smollett testified on Monday.

As he began his testimony, Mr. Smollett depicted himself to the jury, in a lengthy biographical summary of his career, as someone who grew up in a middle-class family of performers, received some work as a child actor, became deeply involved in charity organizations and returned to acting, landing the major role on “Empire.”

In January 2019, when the attack was reported, public sympathy for Mr. Smollett was immediate and widespread. But as the police investigation into the report stalled, suspicion grew about Mr. Smollett’s account, though the actor stood by it.

“It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone Black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me much more,” Mr. Smollett told ABC’s Robin Roberts in February of that year. “A lot more.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/arts/television/jussie-smollett-trial-testimony.html