"This dude was like a super villain": Osundairo brothers break silence on Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax 

Jussie Smollett
Jussie Smollett's staged attackers, the Osundairo brothers shared exclusive details about the 2019 attack in new docuseries. (Image via Reuters, AP)

The Osundairo brothers have broken their silence on actor Jussie Smollett, who allegedly paid them to carry out a staged homophobic and racist attack against him back in 2019. Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo were paid $3500 to carry out the attack in January 2019 on the streets of Chicago.

The five-part docuseries based on the B-Boy Blues actor’s staged 2019 attack started streaming on Fox Nation on Monday, March 13.

Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax comprises extensive interviews with the Osundairo brothers since their testimony at Jussie’s 2021 trial. The brothers have shared exclusive details of the fake attack and their alleged roles in it.

They claimed that Jussie planned the apparent hate crime against himself in an attempt to coax public sympathy. The Empire actor’s plot was out in the open after the Osundairo brothers confessed in a Chicago lockup that the mugging was a hoax.

While speaking about how Jussie consistently kept on lying and trying to act innocent after the hoax was revealed, the Osundairo brothers said in an interview with Fox Nation:

“That’s when I really saw a different side of Jussie. Like, dude, really? This is when I knew that this dude was like a super villain.”

The Osundairo brothers alleged that Jussie Smollett fought back as part of the planned mugging

Abimbola and Olabinjo used to be aspiring actors from Nigeria. They revealed that they agreed to take up on Jussie Smollett’s peculiar offer to physically attack him because they thought the already-established actor would help their career in return.

The brothers claimed that they were prepared to attack Jussie according to plan, but the actor did not show up on time. Abimbola alleged that they made sure to get to the spot at 2 am sharp. He said that Jussie did not want them to bring their phones with them. Abimbola continued:

“So 2 am, he was nowhere to be found. He was not there, so we were like, ‘Damn, what do we do?’ We didn’t have no way of contacting him. He had no way of contacting us. So we waited here for about … four minutes.”

Olabinjo added:

“But it felt like forever.”

The brothers reasoned that the weather was very cold. Once they caught sight of Jussie, they went ahead with the plan. They claimed that they crossed the street and called out to Jussie to get his attention and started yelling the exact slurs the actor wanted them to yell:

“Hey, aren’t you that ‘Empire’ f****t?”

Abimbola said that they started moving around, tussling, and then pulling Jussie Smollett to the ground. He added that Jussie wanted the situation to look like he fought back.

Jussie then went to Chicago police and reported that he was assaulted while on his way to his apartment from a subway restaurant. He alleged that his attackers hurled slurs at him, hit him, hung a noose around his neck, and even poured a chemical substance on him while declaring that Chicago was a MAGA country.

He described his attackers as two MAGA hat-clad white supremacists who also wore ski masks. Jussie claimed that he was the victim of a homophobic and racist attack.

The manhunt for the two attackers swiftly turned into an investigation into Jussie, and he was subsequently arrested on charges of orchestrating the attack himself and lying to the cops about it.

Both the Osundairo brothers' in-depth testimonies during the hearings exposed Jussie Smollett’s plot, leading to his conviction in December 2021. He was found guilty by a jury on five charges of disorderly conduct.

The new docuseries came out nearly two weeks after he appealed a new trial challenging his 2021 conviction and verdict.

The brothers slammed Jussie Smollett in the interview and labeled him as a “crazy fundraiser”. The brothers said that the actor paid them for the ambush so that he could be acclaimed as a “poster boy for activism”.

The brothers recalled that after executing the attack, they went back to Nigeria. They auditioned for Big Brother (Nigeria) and also contemplated whether they had put on a convincing performance for Jussie.

Referring to Jussie Smollett's continued attitude towards the incident, which has remained the same since his 2021 trial, Abimbola said:

“I thought he was a good actor, but I also thought this guy was a fraud.”

Abimbola referred to Jussie’s interview with ABC News where he shed tears and denied that the attack was staged. He said:

“This guy is really just sitting here, lying to these people. Lying through his teeth, and not caring.”

The brothers disclosed that they met Jussie Smollett an hour before executing the staged attack, but the actor abandoned them when the truth started to come out.

Both Olabinjo and Abimbola said that they felt betrayed by Jussie, who tried to burden them with the blame during their court hearings.

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Edited by Rhythm Bhatia
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