CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett’s attorneys will not be able to call State’s Attorney Kim Foxx or her top assistant to the stand at the actor’s eventual trial, nor will attorneys be allowed to mention the various lawsuits that have swirled around his case, a Cook County judge ruled Thursday.
However, they will be able to tell jurors about the guns, including an AR-15, that were found after police searched the home of key witnesses the Osundairo brothers — one of whom has a felony conviction.
That likely will be a key part of their argument that the brothers only fingered Smollett because they wanted to avoid getting in trouble themselves.
But since the gun was legally owned by Abimbola Osundairo, who did not have any felonies, they had no real reason to fear prosecution for it, prosecutors argued at a hearing Thursday. The gun has since been returned to its owner.
That makes the defense’s strategy a “very double-edged sword,” Judge James Linn said. They are free to introduce evidence about the guns, but their argument could easily be rebutted if prosecutors tell jurors the guns were legal, he said.
“My ruling now is to let the jury know that those items were seized, I’m not seeing that it’s a real problem,” Judge Linn said. “It’s easily solved with the truth.”
No trial date has been set, but Linn seems eager to hustle the case along, informing the attorneys at length about his process for selecting jurors even though the defense said that because of technical issues they have not even been able to access all the potential evidence in the case.
Linn said he was hesitant to set a trial date Thursday, given the uncertainty about COVID-19 restrictions in the wake of the delta variant’s spread.
Smollett found himself at the center of an international firestorm in early 2019 after he allegedly orchestrated the phony hate crime on himself with the help of the brothers. Cook County prosecutors initially charged him with disorderly conduct, then abruptly dropped the case outright about a month later, with little explanation.
After much public outcry and confusion, a judge appointed veteran attorney Dan Webb as special prosecutor to investigate the Smollett matter. Webb and his team subsequently convened the special grand jury that brought up Smollett on his new case last year.
