Nigerian brothers who helped Jussie Smollett commit hoax hate crime speak out

The two Nigerian brothers who helped Jussie Smollett turn America against Trump supporters are speaking out for the first time.

“Empire” star Jussie Smollett tricked the world into believing he was attacked by two Trump supporters in the heart of Chicago one late night while getting a Subway sandwich. The hoax made shockwaves throughout the media as celebrities, politicians, and influencers rallied to his side and blamed then-President Donald Trump for fostering an environment hostile to minorities.

The so-called “hate crime“ was picked apart and eventually exposed as a hoax, and Smollett was convicted of five felony counts of disorderly conduct, and sentenced to 150 days in jail in March 2022.

To carry out the ruse, Smollett enlisted the help of two Nigerian brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, to pose as Trump supporters. They’re finally speaking out for the first time on a Fox Nation special called “Anatomy of a Hoax,” which goes over the Smollett case.

"A friend of mine had sent me a screenshot of the front page of, I believe a TMZ article, that showed that Jussie had been attacked. I ran to my brother and was like, ‘Yo, mission accomplished. We did it,’" Bola recounted in a newly-released five-part series on Fox Nation.

"Now we've secured the payment of our $500 that he owes us because he only wrote us a check of [sic] $3,500, and that was the day we were supposed to leave for Nigeria."

Fox News reports:

"You know Eddie Johnson [former Chicago Police Superintendent] said he could tell in the footage that you guys are Black, right?" an off-camera interviewer asked the brothers.

"Really?" Ola asked. "I feel like he's just saying that… we were in character the whole time."

"So you think you guys are believable White supremacists?" the interviewer pressed.

"One hundred percent! Look at me," Bola laughed. Chicago Police released images of the incident shortly after it took place, but Johnson said the initially released image of two silhouettes walking shoulder-to-shoulder down the snowy Chicago street was not the best image they had at the time.

The other showed one brother wearing a red hat – presumably a MAGA hat.

"I didn't want people to focus on that," Bola said upon reflecting, later explaining that Black and LGBTQ+ communities would have been outraged. "Sometimes, once the toothpaste gets out of the tube, you can get it back in there."