Ola and Bola Osundairo, the brothers employed by Jussie Smollett in 2019 for his alleged scheme, say the disgraced actor is refusing to confess guilt.
Smollett, who’s Black and homosexual, accused his “attackers” of shouting racist and homophobic slurs at him earlier than placing a noose round his neck in Chicago six years in the past.
In 2021, the actor was discovered responsible of 5 counts of disorderly conduct after it turned out he arrange the assault. Testimony at his trial indicated he paid the brothers, whom he knew from the set of the TV present “Empire,” $3,500 to hold out the “attack.”
That pair joined NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” — with Ola Osundairo carrying a “Make America Great Again” hat — to dissect the incident and up to date courtroom determination within the case.
“Jussie is a great actor. He is good at what he does, and … people really believe him,” Bola mentioned. “But every time I listen to him, and I hear him, I’m disappointed because he does not — and cannot — say the truth.”
Their remarks got here simply days after the Illinois Supreme Court docket reversed the actor’s conviction within the deliberate assault, ruling that he should not have been prosecuted a second time because the expenses have been initially dropped and Smollett had already entered right into a take care of the Cook dinner County state’s lawyer’s workplace.
“My reaction to the court’s ruling was that it made sense,” Ola Osundairo mentioned. “The real injustice here was the sweetheart deal that [Cook County State’s Attorney] Kim Foxx gave him in the first place, which allowed him to go on and profess his innocence.”
Foxx, who recused herself after she communicated with a Smollett relative throughout the probe, reiterated that she welcomed an impartial investigation into the best way she and her workplace dealt with the case.
The brothers penned a e book, “Bigger Than Jussie: The Disturbing Need for a Modern-Day Lynching,” and inform NewsNation they’re “very looking forward to putting all of this behind.”
“We think and believe that the truth should be out to help people that have been in positions that we’ve been in, such as making a mistake,” Bola Osundairo mentioned. “The mistake that does not have to define you, you can move forward from making a mistake, and that’s what the book helps us tell.”
NewsNation (NN) native affiliate WGN’s Angelica Sanchez, Marisa Rodriguez, Andy Koval contributed to this report. NN is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which additionally owns The Hill.
