— Mark Vargas (@MarkAVargas) December 13, 2021

FNC: “Empire” actor Terrence Howard broke his silence on the verdict in his co-star Jussie Smollett’s high-profile case in Chicago.

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Last week, Smollett was found guilty on five out of six charges at his hate crime hoax trial. After a contentious week of witness testimony, counsel arguments and deliberation, the jury found Smollett had indeed lied to police when he said he did not work with two siblings who worked on ‘Empire’ to stage the attack on himself as a hate crime.

On Sunday evening, the Academy Award-nominated actor spoke about the verdict involving Smollett during an appearance on Mark Vargas’ ‘Mark My Words’ radio show, where he noted that he looked at the entire trial in a different light because he felt a paternal relationship with Smollett given the fact he played his son on ‘Empire.’ ”

Howard: “It’s interesting, it’s an uncomfortable question because anyone that’s aware of the show or my relationship with Jussie would know that Jussie is, for six years, he was my son…He was my son that I had the most difficulty with on that show as far as the character world goes. So you end up getting very close to individuals that you have the most struggle with. Whose characters you have the most struggle with.

“They judged him and found him guilty, 12 of them that judged from a completely unbiased position… you have to respect that…If they had gotten away with it, whoever orchestrated it. Whatever was set up. If they got away with it, then we would have the potential of Blacks feeling like they need to defend Black people against MAGA, and it could have turned into something very, very scary and very ugly,” he said. “People would have gotten hurt and killed and if that was the case, the blood on someone’s hands would have been massive.”