Actor Charged - Smollett Defiant Amid Allegations He Staged Attack; Actor Charged - Smollett Defiant Amid Allegations He Staged Attack
SCIUTTO: Well, really just an incredible string of events here. Just hours after being bailed out of jail on a felony charge, "Empire" actor, Jussie Smollett defending himself to cast and crew mates, who expected that he might confess. Smollett, back on set, acting again yesterday as well.</s>HARLOW: And, you know, sources say he did apologize to his co-stars and crew, but when they thought he was going to come clean, he reportedly doubled down in his innocence denying he staged the assault. Let's go to our reporter, Ryan Young, live in Chicago, who's been all over this story. What are you learning, as I understand it, from someone who was in the room with him yesterday?</s>RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So this is sort of playing at now, through the tea leaves, it's going to that entertainment side. They said he showed up. People were expecting him to apologize to the cast, that did happen. The next step people thought, maybe he would come clean, that didn't happen. What we do know now is that 20th Century Fox is actually telling us that they put his shooting schedule on hold for now. It was amazing they think of that scrum that we saw outside the courthouse, with all those photographers surrounding around him, and then he got into an SUV with the bodyguards that I think the show pays for, they took him to set. I mean, this is really playing out like some true Hollywood movie, that's all being filmed. I mean, there were helicopters following his SUV all the way to that set yesterday. But let's talk about what we were told. The prosecution, the superintendent says he paid the attackers $ 3,500.</s>TEXT: PROSECUTORS LAY OUT CASE AGAINST JUSSIE SMOLLETT. THEY SAY SMOLLETT: Paid Osundairo brothers $3,500 to stage attack. Wanted a rope placed around his neck, gasoline poured on him. Wanted brothers to yell "This is MAGA country". Gave $100 in cash to brothers for supplies. Scoped out a location to stage attack.</s>YOUNG: He actually gave them $100 bill according to prosecution, and they said that they took that money, and they went to a beauty supply store. We even have images of that, and they were actually buying the beauty supply items to do the attack. At one point, you see the two brothers look like they notice the cameras that were inside the store, and kind of look at them. So all this was playing out kind of just right there in front of the cameras. And then yesterday, we were sitting there after the superintendent gave that impassioned speech about how all this is taking the attention off the real problems of Chicago. And talking about how, as a black man, he was offended about the noose, and how this has wasted a thousand police hours in this investigation. We moved on from there to watch his family also be surrounded in that scrub, as people just want to know, what he could possibly think. In fact, Smollett's own legal team says they're maintaining his innocence and they, with a defiant statement, they even went forward and said what we witnessed today, was an organized law enforcement spectacle.</s>YOUNG: So you just got to think what's going to happen next, in this case guys.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, they remember hearing the police superintendent yesterday saying, what he wanted to hear now, was an apology, wanted to hear him fessing up, and wanted to hear him promise to pay back all the funds that were, the police superintendent said, were wasted on this. That clearly hasn't happened. So, what's the next step?</s>YOUNG: Well, we do know this. In three weeks, there'll be another court case. He got a $100,000 bond. So you had to put $10,000 up. He'll be in court court again. And look, guys, we've covered cases all the time. The two brothers could be lying partially as well, right? And Jussie could have some parts of truth to this, maybe on his side. But, of course, those messages that they're going to have between the phone calls and the text messages are really going to, probably lay this out. The other part they put out there is, the two brothers were actually Jussie's drug dealers as well. So some of all this dirty laundry, that's sort of unfolding in front of us, it'll be interesting to see how we can tie the entire timeline together with over a 100 witnesses talked to, 50 cameras looked at, and still more search warrants expected in the coming days.</s>HARLOW: Ryan Young, don't go anywhere, because this story just keeps evolving, and you're all over it. Thank you. Ahead for us. Yes, she lost the election, but is Hillary Clinton's endorsements still worth a lot? We are just hearing that she has been meeting with some 2020 contenders.