Jussie Smollett Wraps Workout with Taraji P. Henson with Hug Goodbye

Jussie Smollett is carrying on with his life with good pals in his corner like Taraji P. Henson — even though, in reality, he’s far from out of the woods in the legal world.

The embattled actor was in L.A. Saturday with his ex-‘Empire’ costar during what appears to have been a hike — or at the very least, something active. In any case, they hit up a little pop-in restaurant right after … and then parted ways with a sweet little hug goodbye.

A couple of takeaways here … one, Taraji is continuing to stand by Jussie’s side — which she’s done from pretty much the beginning of this saga. So, her support is unwavering.

The other observation one can glean from this is that Jussie truly is trying to move on and put the whole Chicago case behind him by hunkering down on the West Coast … this despite the fact that there’s an ongoing appeal, which he may very well lose once it’s heard in court.

As you may remember, Jussie was convicted in December 2021 for lying to police about the hate crime he claimed was committed against him — and he was sentenced to 5 months in jail.

He’d actually started serving that time, but was quickly sprung pending his appeal … which his team filed almost immediately. Since then, he’s been free to roam around, it seems, and the case is still dragging on — with a recent hearing just last month … but no real update.

No word on when exactly we’re going to get some closure on that matter, but in the meantime … Jussie’s been busy working on movies and whatnot. In fact, he was recently seen on a film set with none other than Vivica A. Fox — yet another defender of his.