“Empire ”Creator Would 'Cast' Jussie Smollett in Future Project Despite Past Hoax Scandal: 'He Was a Son to Me'

"I'd work with him again," Lee Daniels said on a recent episode of 'The Breakfast Club'

Lee Daniels is speaking out on where he stands with Jussie Smollett.

In an interview on iHeart Radio’s The Breakfast Club, the Empire creator, 64, opened up about his feelings five years after Smollett, 42, was convicted of making false accusations about a racist crime against him. For the first time since writing Smollett off the show, Daniels revealed he is open to teaming up with him on a future project.

“I’d work with him again,” he said. “I’d cast him in something. He was a son to me. And he also represented me. And he also represented the movement that I tried to start, which I didn't know I was starting. I was so busy, worried about Cookie's hat and the music that we were playing [on Empire], this was before Insecure, this was before Black Panther. We started it.”

He added, “I was so worried about getting everything right that I didn't know what was happening in the zeitgeist.”

Related: 'Empire' Creator Lee Daniels Says the Cast Is 'Upset' in the Wake of Jussie Smollett's Case

Adding that “the whole situation was complicated,” Daniels said he has never truly gotten clarity on the alleged incident.

“That whole situation was complicated. I still don’t know what to believe,” he admitted. “Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. People say he didn’t do it, he did do it. God bless him on his journey.”

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In January 2019, Smollett, who is a gay Black man, reported that two men attacked him on his way home from a late-night stop at a sandwich shop. He claimed that amid a slew of racist and homophobic slurs, the men also wrapped a rope around his neck and poured bleach over him.

After an investigation, authorities later alleged that the Skinny actor paid brothers Abimbola "Bola" and Olabinjo "Ola" Osundairo $3,500 to stage a “bogus” hate crime attack against him. They claimed this was a response to Smollett’s dissatisfaction with his Empire salary after appearing on the show for five seasons.

Related: Jussie Smollett Enters Rehab, Takes ‘Necessary Steps’ After ‘an Extremely Difficult Past Few Years'

Years later, in March 2022, Smollett received a sentence of 150 days in jail, 30 months felony probation, $120,106 in restitution and a $25,000 fine for the hate crime hoax as well as subsequently filing a false police report in connection to the incident. He was also released from Empire for its sixth and final season.

Smollett has maintained his innocence.

"We are gratified that Jussie will be back with his family and loved ones and look forward to a dispassionate review and reversal of the serial injustices visited upon him,” one of Smollett’s attorneys, Tina Glandian of Geragos & Geragos, told PEOPLE at the time.

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