(NewsNation) — Disgraced actor Jussie Smollett refuses to admit guilt, according to brothers Ola and Bola Osundairo, who Smollett hired to attack him in Chicago nearly six years ago.
Smollett, who is Black and gay, alleged his attackers shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him before putting a noose around his neck in 2019.
In 2021, he was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct after it turned out he set up the attack. Testimony at his trial indicated he paid two brothers, whom he knew from the set of the TV show “Empire,” $3,500 to carry out the “attack.”
That pair joined “Dan Abrams Live” — Ola Osundairo wearing a MAGA hat — to dissect the incident and recent court decision.
“Jussie is a great actor. He is good at what he does, and … people really believe him … But every time I listen to him and I hear him, I’m disappointed because he does not — and cannot — say the truth,” Bola Osundairo said.
On Friday, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the ex-“Empire” actor’s conviction in the planned attack, ruling that he shouldn’t have been prosecuted a second time since the charges were dropped and Smollett had already entered into a deal with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
“My reaction to the court’s ruling was that it made sense,” Ola Osundairo said. “The real injustice here was the sweetheart deal that [Cook County State’s Attorney] Kim Foxx gave him in the first place, which allowed him to go on and profess his innocence.”
Foxx, who recused herself after she communicated with a Smollett relative during the probe, reiterated that she welcomed an independent investigation into the way she and her office handled the case.
The brothers penned a book, “Bigger Than Jussie: The Disturbing Need for a Modern-Day Lynching,” and tell NewsNation they are “very looking forward to putting all of this behind.”
“We think and believe that the truth should be out to help people that have been in positions that we’ve been in, such as making a mistake,” Bola Osundairo said. “The mistake that does not have to define you, you can move forward from making a mistake, and that’s what the book helps us tell.”
NewsNation local affiliate WGN’s Angelica Sanchez, Marisa Rodriguez, Andy Koval contributed to this report.