The Nigerian brothers who Jussie Smollett convinced to stage a bizarre anti-Trump hoax claim the disgraced actor justified the stunt by claiming Hollywood A-listers fake incidents all the time.
Smollett’s conviction was sensationally overturned yesterday by Illinois’ Supreme Court in a decision that has been widely panned.
It was turned over on a legal technicality relating to a sweetheart deal Smollett was offered by Cook County DA Kim Foxx.
Today, brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo reacted to the decision by urging Smollett to admit guilt once and for all – and also revealed what he told them when convincing them to help him stage the hoax.
They said in an interview with Fox and Friends that Smollett specifically claimed Kim Kardashian faked the shocking robbery in 2016 in France that almost claimed her life.
Kardashian was ‘bound and gagged’ at gunpoint by masked robbers posing as police officers while staying at l’Hotel de Pourtalès, and they stole $10 million worth of luxury jewelry.
The perpetrators were arrested and convicted following a trial in Paris.
The Osundairo brothers said Smollett told them it was all ‘fake’.
‘He made it seem like this is what Hollywood does. He mentioned Kim Kardashian.
‘During that time, she had an incident where she got robbed and kidnapped in France, and he said that was made up, that was fake.
‘So that’s what I was thinking, like, oh, this is what Hollywood does. My brother and I are professional actors, and we thought, oh, this is our introduction into Hollywood.’
Kardashian’s representatives did not immediately respond to request for comment about Smollett’s inflammatory claims.
Smollett’s attorney did not immediately respond to inquiries about his alleged comments.
Smollett was convicted in December 2021 for lying to police about an alleged episode in Chicago two years before, where he claimed two men beat him, yelled homophobic slurs and placed a noose around his neck while wearing MAGA hats.
It was later found that he convinced the Osundairo brothers to stage the attack.
Asked for their response to Thursday’s decision, Abel said: ‘We were taken aback initially, not because of the Supreme Court’s decision, but because Jussie never admitted guilt.
‘We understand that he has due process rights and double jeopardy shouldn’t and is not allowed in America.
‘However, Jussie should have admitted guilt and that’s where we stand.’
Olabinjo added: ‘So the real injustice here was the sweetheart deal he was given by Kim Foxx’s office at the beginning of all of this.’
Foxx has said she was confused why there was so much attention paid to Smollett’s hoax and said other false police reports do not receive such scrutiny.
But the brothers rejected her argument, with Abel saying: ‘It is a big deal. And the problem is, if it was a regular small Joe, John Doe or Ola Osundairo, he would not get that deal. Jussie got that deal because he has influence and power.
‘So, it shows that there are two different citizens in America, one with power and one without. And that’s why he got that sweetheart deal.’
The brothers added that they were paid by Smollett but are still owed $500 from the actor, although Olabinjo conceded: ‘I don’t think we’re ever going to see that.’
‘It was not about the money at all. It was more so us helping out a friend,’ Abel said.
When Smollett first came forward with his story, the actor was met with widespread support, and the Chicago PD vowed to swiftly find his attackers. Smollett even showed police the noose that he claimed he was almost lynched with.
Although Smollett claimed he was attacked by two white Trump supporters, detectives reviewed surveillance footage and zeroed in on the Osundairo brothers as suspects.
When presented with a grainy surveillance picture of the brothers near the scene, Smollett said they were ‘absolutely’ the men who attacked him, not realizing they had already been arrested.
One of his attorneys, Tina Glandian, claimed that Smollett may have misidentified the brothers – who he had also just been on the phone with moments before – because they could have been ‘in disguise’ in white makeup.
She went on to point to a 2016 YouTube video of Abel Osundairo where he is wearing white make-up to perform a Joker monologue for Halloween as proof of her theory.
However, despite a grand jury indicting him for repeatedly lying to cops, the charges against Smollett were then sensationally dropped a month later in March, sparking outrage from the public.
President Trump led the backlash as he decried the charges being dropped as an ’embarrassment to the nation’, while Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson, who is Black, said at the time: ‘Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.’
The Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, amounted it to a ‘whitewash of justice’ that proved Smollett was treated gently by the system because he is a celebrity and a prominent figure in the city.
After he was fined $140,000 for wasting police resources, a special prosecutor was named to investigate why the charges against Smollett were dropped.
It was this decision that has now led to Smollett’s ultimate conviction to be overturned this week, as it was found his rights were violated because Smollett had agreed with prosecutors that he would not be re-charged at the time after the case against him was dropped.
In February 2020 Smollett was indicted again on felony lying to police, and following a contentious trial where he maintained his innocence, Smollett was convicted at the conclusion of his trial in 2021.
Smollett again sparked backlash during his conviction hearing, as he triumphantly raised his fist to appear defiant, despite being caught in a lie.