Jussie Smollett’s Alleged Attackers Now Say They Will Testify Against Him

Two brothers who admitted helping actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago last year are again willing to help in the case after initially saying they were done cooperating with prosecutors, their attorney said Thursday.

In yet another strange twist in a story that has been full of them, attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez said in a statement that Abimbola (Abel) and Olabinjo (Ola) Osundairo changed their minds after a 9mm handgun that was seized during a search of their home last year was located after it went missing.

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The about-face by the brothers came just hours after various media outlets reported that the brothers at the center of the case against the actor were, according to their lawyer, finished cooperating because of the missing gun and their feeling that the police department’s lawyers were treating them like suspects.

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The threat to not cooperate was the latest development in a strange story that has taken a host of unexpected turns since January 2019, when Smollett, a Black and openly gay actor who worked on the TV show “Empire,” reported to police that two masked men had approached him in downtown Chicago, made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing.

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