Nigerian brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who were paid $3,500 by actor Jussie Smollett to carry out a staged mugging in 2019, have spoken up about the incident in a fresh interview.
In the televised interview with Fox Nation, the aspiring actors called the former Empire star a “crazy fraudster” who arranged the Chicago hoax attack in January 2019 as an apparent hate crime to deceive the public into perceiving him as a ‘poster boy for activism’. Smollet is gay.
Two days after being locked up over the incident, the Osundairo brothers confessed to authorities that the mugging was a hoax, causing Smollett to be charged and convicted in 2021 of five counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police about being the victim of a racist, anti-gay attack he said was perpetrated by Trump supporters.
In the interview, the brothers said it was “insane” that the actor consistently lied and attempted to play innocent.
“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,” one of the brothers said.
They said they felt “betrayed” by the actor, saying he ought to come out to say the truth.
“I thought he was a good actor, but I also thought this guy was a fraud,” Abimbola said. “This guy is really just sitting her, lying to these people. Lying through his teeth, and not caring.”
He added, “I did feel betrayed by Jussie and what he had done. I didn’t know what to do – I wasn’t ready to say anything. Like, I was mute. And I didn’t want to say anything.”
The brothers also gave a demonstration of how and when the hoax attack was executed.
Watch a video
Lmao, the Jussie Smollett hoax perpetrators doing a play by play of what happened is exactly what we needed in 2023. 😂
— Alex Rosen (@iFightForKids) March 14, 2023