Jussie Smollett’s attorneys are expected to continue presenting their case to jurors Monday morning on what might be the final day of the “Empire” actor’s trial.

       And as the trial nears its close, all eyes are on Smollett: Will he take the stand in his own defense?

       The day’s first witness was Anthony Moore, a security guard who was making the rounds in Streeterville in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2019, the night of the attack.

       He was near the Chicago Burger Company when he saw what appeared to be a white man in a ski mask coming towards him, he testified. He also saw a second person, but couldn’t make out that person’s face, he said. A third person was by the stairs on all fours “like he was looking for something,” he said.

       Through Moore’s testimony, the defense hopes to corroborate Smollett’s initial statements to police, in which he said his attackers appeared to be white. Defense attorneys at hearings earlier this year have said they may argue a theory that the prosecutions’ key witnesses — two Black brothers who told police they helped Smollett stage the attack — in fact attacked Smollett outright, with the help of accomplices who may have been white.

       Almost a year after the attack, in January 2020, Moore was interviewed by special prosecutors and signed a statement that they typed up, he testified.

       That statement, however, does not say he saw a white man. It states that Moore was possibly mistaken by the flashlight he shined into the man’s face.

       From the stand Monday, Moore said he felt pressured and threatened by prosecutors “to put something out there that I didn’t see.”

       Smollett faces six counts of felony disorderly conduct after allegedly staging a hoax hate-crime attack on himself and then lying to police about it. The trial is a culmination of almost three years of intense media attention and controversy surrounding the case, which became a national culture-war firestorm.

       On Thursday evening, after telling jurors they would have an impromptu three-day weekend, Cook County Judge James Linn said he believed the case could wrap up Monday.

       Prosecutors rested their case Thursday after the testimony of their two central witnesses: Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, two brothers who told jurors Smollett recruited them to stage the phony hate crime.

       Shortly afterward, the defense began presenting witnesses. So far, a music manager, a publicist and a doctor have testified on Smollett’s behalf.

       The actor, who is Black and gay, told officers in 2019 that he was attacked by two people who yelled racist and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him, and tied a rope around his neck like a noose. The Osundairos, however, told police Smollett recruited them to stage the attack, turning Smollett from victim to suspect.

       mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

       jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

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