Nigerian brothers prepared to testify at Jussie Smollett trial

Ola and Abel Osundairo will not feel vindicated unless the actor is convicted

Feb 12, 2020

Jussie Smollett thegrio — Actor Jussie Smollett leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Tuesday March 26, 2019, after prosecutors dropped all charges against him. Smollett was indicted on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Jussie Smollett has been indicted on by a grand jury on charges related to a racist and homophobic attack last year that police in Chicago claim was a hoax. Now the lawyer representing the Nigerian brothers at the center of the case has said they are prepared to testify at his trial.

In January 2019, the actor claimed that he’d been the victim of a hate crime, alleging that two masked men attacked him because he was gay and Black. Within weeks, the police began to suspect that the actor orchestrated the attack and hired Ola and Abel Osundairo to stage the attack and allegedly paid them $3,500.

Now that that the “Empire” actor has been indicted by a special prosecutor following a six-month investigation, the siblings are looking forward to telling their side of the story after being called liars by Smollett’s attorneys for the last year.

Wednesday, in response to the news, the Osundairo brothers’ attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez told the DailyMail.com that neither she nor her clients were surprised by the indictment.

Atty says Osundairo brothers will testify at #JussieSmollett trial.
The men told police Smollett paid them $3500 to stage attack.
Smollett was indicted yesterday on 6 counts for making false police reports that he was victim of #HateCrime.#Wednesday https://t.co/0sDKLwS5lb

— Beverly A. Pekala (@PekalaLaw) February 12, 2020

She revealed that although the Osundairo brothers do not have any ill feelings towards Smollett, they’ve been cooperating with special prosecutor Dan Webb‘s office and hope the 37-year-old will finally come clean about what he did.

“They have no ill will towards Mr Smollett. They really feel like their role in this now is to be honest about what they know,” explained Schmidt Rodriguez. “They hope he can be honest about what he knows.”

The lawyer also said the two men are looking forward to finally clearing their names in court after Smollett’s attorneys publicly accused them of entirely fabricating the hoax plot.

“They don’t feel vindicated. A real vindication would be when a court of law says, ‘OK Mr Smollett – you were guilty of lying.’ At that point they would,” she said.