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The Jussie Smollett saga continues as the brothers who were paid by the Empire actor to stage a hate crime are speaking out.
According to the New York Post, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo returned to the scene of the staged hate crime in Chicago for the five-part docuseries “Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax,” which debuted Monday (March 13) on FOX Nation.
The Osundairo brothers, who were paid $3,500 for the hate crime hoax, sat down for their first extensive interview since testifying at Smollett's trial in 2021, sharing "exclusive" details of their roles in the January 2019 incident.
“As we cross the street, we said, ‘Hey,’ to get his (Smollet's) attention," the brothers said describing how the incident went down. "‘Hey, n****.’ He turned around, looked at us, and that’s when we started yelling the famous slurs he wanted us to yell. ‘Hey, aren’t you that ‘Empire’ f****t?'”
“We started tussling, moving around, and then I pull him to the ground,” Abimbola continued. “He wanted it to look like he fought back. That was very important for him because he said, ‘Hey, don’t just beat my a**. Make it look like I’m fighting back and whatnot.'”
Abimola alleged that Smollett wanted to stage the hate crime to become the “poster boy for activism.” The Osundairo brothers further claimed that Smollett walked them through the plans for crime at the site beforehand.
“We was in character the whole time,” Olabinjo said.
The docuseries' debut comes days after Smollett reportedly appealed his 150-day sentence. In 2021, Smollett was found guilty of lying to authorities about the alleged homophobic and racist attack after the brothers testified in court that it was a hoax.
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