Does brothers’ key testimony put pressure on Jussie Smollett to take stand in hoax hate crime trial?
CHICAGO — Not long after they allegedly pretended to beat up actor Jussie Smollett in January 2019, two Chicago brothers took off for their ancestral home of Nigeria, where they were going to audition for a show called “Big Brother Naija.”
The brothers, aspiring actors Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, never got the roles. But they wound up starring instead in a far higher-profile drama right here in their hometown:
Smollett’s criminal trial.
Over two days this week, the Osundairo brothers’ long-awaited testimony riveted jurors and spectators at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, where they laid out in detail a bizarre plot allegedly hatched by Smollett to pretend to beat up the “Empire” actor, pour bleach on him and wrap a rope around his neck while shouting racist and homophobic slurs.
Both brothers said Smollett had hoped the fake attack would be captured on a surveillance camera near his Streeterville apartment and splashed in the media, putting pressure on the “Empire” studio
