Prosecutors said the hoax was originally scheduled for the evening of January 28, 2019, but was pushed back to 2 a.m. January 29 when a flight Smollett was taking from New York back to Chicago was delayed for several hours.
“There is one unsung hero in all of this and my clients really want to make sure she gets the credit she deserves and that is retired Judge Sheila O’Brien. Without the judge, we don’t have the office of the special prosecutor. We don’t have the verdict that we have today,” Schmidt-Rodriguez said. We don’t have people being held accountable.