Where is Jussie Smollett now? Brothers who were paid to attack actor call him ‘crazy fraudster’
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: The two men, who were paid by Jussie Smollett to attack him in January 2019, have finally spoken up. Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo have slammed the actor as a “crazy fraudster” and revealed that they were given $3,500 to execute the hate crime against him so that he could reinvent himself as the “poster boy for activism”.
Referring to Smollett’s continued insistence that he was actually a victim despite being found guilty in 2021, the brothers told Fox Nation, “Insane. 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 supervillain.”
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‘I did feel betrayed by Jussie’
Abimbola shared, “I thought he was a good actor, but I also thought this guy was a fraud. This guy is really just sitting here, lying to these people. Lying through his teeth, and not caring. 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.”
Further tarnishing the ‘Empire’ actor, Abimbola pointed out, “It was a crazy scene that Jussie put on. He even said, ‘I wouldn't be my mother's son if I did what you guys said I did.’ I'm like, 'then you're not your mother's son, buddy,'” before asserting, “This guy is a super liar. To say something like that, and to even bring your mother into something like that. Showing no sense of remorse. It's crazy.”
‘He seemed genuine and authentic’
The Osundairo brothers also shared how they met the ‘Taraji's White Hot Holiday Special’ star. Abimbola said, “I met him through a friend. My friend said, ‘this dude is cool. He’s like everybody else.’ He seemed genuine and authentic as a person. We would go out to nightclubs or a bar, and just chill, relax – there were a few times that I came to his house and watched TV while they [Smollet and his brother] would be smoking, 'cause I didn’t really smoke.”
He noted, “He was a lead actor on Empire, which means, being friends with him could help you out, which did help me out. 'He helped me get a stand-in role on Empire, and when he directed, he put me in certain positions while I was a feature background artist – so that was beneficial.”
Abimbola also revealed that before staging the assault, Smollett used to ask them to get weed “because he’s not from Chicago, and he wanted to keep a lower profile. He did not want to get the drug dealer’s number – he wanted me to be the middleman and to get the drugs for him. Those were the type of favors he asked me for, but we weren’t thinking ‘let’s see what we can get from him.’ Because I'm not that type of person.”
He mentioned, “My relationship with Jussie was very genuine, so I wasn’t thinking about what he could do for me. And I know for a fact if I were to approach him like that, that it would probably go sour – our relationship. So I knew that's not the route I should take, and that’s not the way I felt anyway.”
‘I was a bit ambitious’
The Osundairos disclosed their reactions to Smollett’s plan as well. Olabinjo shared, “I was down to do it, cause if we could do this for him, he could probably help us out with our careers. So I was a bit ambitious. I really didn’t think it was going to be anything too big that was gonna cause problems for anybody – nobody was getting hurt or anything – I didn't see the problem with it.”
But Abimbola was not sure as he stated, “I was flustered. I was like, ‘wait, damn – is this doing the right thing, if I agreed to it. What does all of this entail? Are there any consequences to doing it? I couldn’t really think straight.’ He was a friend, he’s helped me out a lot, he’s gotten me roles on Empire, he buys stuff when we go out, which is drinks and whatnot – so I felt indebted to him.”
What is Jussie Smollett up to now?
This comes as earlier in March, Smollett’s lawyers submitted papers to appeal his 150 days conviction to save him from going to jail again on hate crime hoax charges. The 40-year-old gay actor has been out of jail since last year after spending six days in a Chicago prison cell.
The appellate brief by the lawyers stated, "The renewed prosecution of Mr. Smollett violated his due process rights because (1) Mr. Smollett fully performed his part of a non-prosecution agreement with the State by performing community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bail bond; and (2) The State benefited from taking and keeping Mr. Smollett's bail bond without performing its end of the bargain. Thus, the violation of due process was prejudicial and requires reversal of Mr. Smollett's convictions and a dismissal of the charages against him."