The brothers who helped stage actor Jussie Smollett’s infamous hate crime hoax recreated the scene for a Fox Nation docuseries on the incident.
Former Empire actor Smollett claimed in 2019 that he was attacked by two men in the early morning in Chicago. According to the actor, the men tried to pour bleach down his throat and put a noose around his neck. He also claimed they yelled derogatory insults at him and declared it “MAGA country.”
The story fell apart rather quickly and Abimbola (Abel) Osundairo and Olabinjo (Ola) Osundairo soon came forward to say they were paid by Smollett to help stage the crime. In 2021, Smollett was convicted on five felony counts over what prosecutors described as Smollett’s master plan. The actor was sentenced the following year to 150 days behind bars, but he was released while his legal team appeals his conviction.
The Osundairo brothers told Fox Nation for Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax they saw Smollett as a “fraudster” when he denied the existence of a hoax to the press.
“I thought [Smollett] was a good actor, but I also thought this guy’s a fraud. This guy is really just sitting here, just lying to these people. Lying through his teeth, and not caring. I think he shed a tear,” Abel said.
The brothers said Smollett never explicitly said what his motivation was, but Ola theorized he wanted to be a “poster boy for activism.”
“He wanted to be the hero for gay people, for black people,” Abel added.
Perhaps the most fascinating piece of Fox Nation’s docuseries is where the brothers actually return to the scene of the “crime” and recreate what happened, according to them, right down to the noogies and a hot sauce jar full of bleach.
The brothers recreated waiting for Smollett and then walking up to him while yelling racist and homophobic insults.
“He turned around, looked at us, and that’s when we started yelling the famous slurs he wanted us to yell,” Abel recalled.
One of those insults, recorded for the camera, was “this is MAGA country!”
As for the attack itself, the brothers said Smollett requested it look like he fought back. They gave him a “noogie” with his knuckle on the actor’s face to give him and a mark and then threw some fake kicks and punches his way. They then poured bleach from a hot sauce bottle onto Smollett’s shirt and threw a rope around his head before dashing off into the night, also luckily recreated for cameras.
Watch Jussie Smollet: Anatomy of a Hoax at Fox Nation.
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