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This case keeps getting more confusing.
By Alice Kelly — Written on Dec 07, 2021
Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has taken the stand in his criminal trial to attempt to argue against the allegations that he staged a fake hate crime against himself back in 2019.
At the center of the case are two brothers who testified last week that Smollett paid them anti-gay and racist attack in order to garner sympathetic media coverage.
Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo were previously arrested for the alleged attack but have now acted as key witnesses in the prosecution's case against Smollett.
Yet, as Smollett took the stand and detailed his relationship with “Abel” and “Ola,” the allegations thrown from both sides are even more complicated than previously suggested.
Who are Abel and Ola Osundairo?
Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo are brothers from Nigeria who were familiar to Smollett prior to the attack that they say was a hoax.
They met Smollett in fall 2017 while working on “Empire,” where Abel, 25, played a stand-in for a character that was Smollett’s character’s love interest on the show.
Smollett’s attorney says one of the brothers acted as a personal trainer and the actor has maintained that the payment of $3,500 he made to Abel was for personal training, not for staging an attack.
Jussie Smollett alleges that he had a sexual relationship with Abel Osundairo.
In his bombshell testimony, Smollet says he would occasionally buy ecstasy from Abel and take it with him.
Smollet, who referred to him as “Bola” or “Bon,” says he first began to be physically intimate with Abel at a Chicago bath house where they got a private room, "did more drugs and like, made out."
On another occasion, Smollett and Abel allegedly separated from Ola when the three visited a female strip club.
Smollett testified they again got a private room and "made out a little bit, masturbated together."
In his testimony last week, Abel denied ever having a sexual relationship with Smollett.
Bola and Ola Osundairo testified that Jussie Smollett directed the attack.
The brothers have stuck with their claims that Smollett was attempting to further his career by being the victim of a high-profile attack.
Police officers testified that Smollett told them two men in ski masks had attacked him in the street, yelled racist, anti-gay and pro-Trump remarks, put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him.
“He wanted me to tussle and throw him to the ground and give him a bruise while my brother Ola would pour bleach on him and put a rope around him, and then we would run away,” Abimbola Osundairo testified.
The brothers say Smollett had organized a “dry run” of this attack the day before it was due to occur.
Bola and Ola Osundairo were in financial difficulty before the alleged attack.
The Quincy University alums have both previously filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and collectively owe more than $120,000 in student loans.
In 2011, Olabinjo Osundairo was charged with attempted murder in a stabbing. For that charge, Ola reached a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to aggravated battery.
He was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $674 fine.
Evidence against Smollett in the case includes Instagram messages that allegedly shows the actor updating the brothers about his flight delay before the incident.
Smollett has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to six counts of disorderly conduct related to filing a false police report.
Alice Kelly is a senior news and entertainment editor for YourTango. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.