Jussie Smollett Resurfaces for Court Hearing 18 Months After Alleged Hate Crime Hoax

Empire alum Jussie Smollett returns to court following his 2019 alleged hate crime hoax and he's more adamant about his innocence. The actor, who faces charges of lying to police about being the victim of the alleged attack, repeated for a Cook County judge on Wednesday that he was not guilty and referred to the proceedings as a "dog and pony show," says Fox News.

Smollett was brought back to the courtroom for a separate closed hearing to determine if one of his lawyers, Nenye Uche, has a conflict of interest defending him. Uche along with brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo –– all of whom, Smollett was familiar with while on the set of Fox's Empire. The Osundairos told police that they were paid by the actor to stage an attack on him because he was supposedly unhappy with his salary. They've become the key witnesses in the special prosecutor's case and are now claiming Uche previously spoke to them about representing them when the situation first took place –– causing a possible conflict of interest. The lawyer alleges that he's had no correspondence with the two brothers

The special prosecutor entered the trial after Cook County prosecutors dropped Smollett's similar charges in 2019. Smollett pleaded not guilty at the time as well.

"They won't let this go. It doesn't matter. There is an example being made. And the sad thing is that there's an example being made of someone that did not do what they're being accused of," Smollett said in a 2020 interview with Marc Lamont Hill on Instagram Live.

"It's been beyond frustrating because to be somebody that's so outspoken ...it's been difficult to be so quiet. To not be able to say all of the things that you want to say, to not be able to yell from the rooftop," the 37-year-old actor told Hill. "Because, I don't think people realize that I've just been wrapped up in some form of a case for the last, approaching, in just a couple of months approaching two years. It's been beyond frustrating. I'm certainly not going rogue. I'm still taking the advice of my attorneys and everything like that. But I just don't see honestly what staying quiet has really done. Where it has gotten me."