The Nigerian brothers who say Jussie Smollett paid them to beat him up have sued the Empire star’s lawyers for defamation and revealed startling allegations they say were made against them including that Smollett might have had a sexual relationship with one.
Abel and Ola Osundairo have filed a lawsuit against Smollett’s attorneys Mark Geragos and Tina Glandian who they say maliciously painted them as liars in the public after Smollett’s high profile criminal case was dropped.
Among the suggestions the lawyers made was that the brothers, who Smollett knew because he had enlisted them for personal training, might have been wearing white face when they attacked him on January 29.
On April 6, Glandian also claimed in a podcast that they trafficked Nigerian steroids and that Abel, the younger brother, spent the night at Smollett’s apartment.
She offered the theory that Ola, the older brother, wanted to ‘test’ Abel before they went to Nigeria by attacking Smollett who is openly gay.
They say all of the claims are not only false but defamatory and unnecessary because the case had already been dropped.
Smollett walked away from the court last month a free man after a shock decision by Chicago prosecutors to drop all of the charges.
Instead of retreating, his legal team have doubled down on their case and publicly painted him as the victim of a witch-hunt, all the while maligning the brothers by accusing them of lying.
Since then, the brothers have been silent but at a press conference announcing their lawsuit on Tuesday, they said they would not sit back any longer and watch ‘lie after lie’ be told about them.
In their lawsuit, they say Smollett ‘directed every aspect of the attack, including the location and the noose’.
‘Mr. Smollett used his clout as a wealthy actor to influence Plaintiffs, who were in a subordinate relationship to him and were aspiring to “make it” in Hollywood.
‘Mr. Smollett’s motivation was simple.
‘He wanted his employer and the public to notice and appreciate him as a successful black, openly gay actor,’ the lawsuit reads.
While they admit that they went along with the hoax, they said they thought the only intended victim would be Empire and Fox.
‘As far as their participation in this publicity stunt, they’ve realized it was wrong and they have apologized for it and they have expressed more than once that they are tremendously regretful for the role that they played in it but make no mistake, they had no role in calling the police and they had no role in defrauding the police department,’ Schmidt said.
She added: ‘They were asked to do something by a friend who they trusted and at the end of the day, that friend betrayed their trust.’
They say that it was unfair for Smollett’s attorneys to carry on maligning them publicly after the case had been dropped because it served no legal function and was purely to ensure his name stayed in the spotlight.
‘Mr. Smollett’s attorneys, faced with an outraged public, did not retreat after their success.
‘Instead, they doubled down, not simply affirming that Mr. Smollett was a wholly innocent victim but that [the brothers] unequivocally led a criminally homophobic, racist and violent attack against Mr. Smollett.
‘They made these comments knowing they were untrue to distract from Mr. Smollet’s farce and to promote themselves and the Geragos & Geragos law firm,’ it says.
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Source: Daily Mail
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