?Overwhelming? evidence against Jussie Smollett, says prosecution in closing arguments

Lawyers delivered their closing arguments on Wednesday in Jussie Smollett's criminal trial where the former Empire actor is facing charges that he lied to Chicago police about an attack in 2019.

Smollett denies the charges.

Special prosecutor Dan Webb told the jury on Wednesday the evidence against Smollett is "overwhelming", and that what he did in January 2019 caused Chicago police to spend enormous amounts of time and resources investigating an alleged crime that turned out to be fake.

Smollett, who is Black and gay, told police someone put a noose around his neck and yelled racist and homophobic slurs.

The police began investigating the hate crime but the 39-year-old actor was later accused of staging the attack with brothers Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo because he was unhappy at work and wanted to drum up publicity to help his career.

"Besides being against the law, it is just plain wrong to outright denigrate something as serious as real hate crime and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such historical significance in our country," said Webb.

Webb listed six key details that he said "destroy" Smollett's credibility, including Smollett's refusal to turn over evidence such as his cellphone and DNA sample to the police, Smollett's allegedly false statements about the attackers' race to the police, the way the rope was put around Smollett's neck, the alleged inability of the brothers to attack Smollett without advance knowledge, and lack of serious injuries in medical evidence.