Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo testified at Jussie Smollett’s trial in Chicago on Thursday.
They say Jussie hired them to beat him up in an attack he thought would be filmed and go viral in the press.
They said they never intended for police to become involved, and they wanted to help Jussie, their ‘friend’.
Jussie’s attorneys have suggested he was having a romantic relationship with Abel, and that Ola was homophobic.
They haven’t yet put forward a clear motive for why the two brothers would attack him.
On Thursday, Jussie’s attorney said he and Abel had ‘dated’ and ‘masturbated together in a bathhouse’.
Ola – who Jussie’s team claimed was homophobic – testified he was a bouncer at Boystown, a gay club.
He also testified that he dressed up as a Trojan warrior for Pride in 2015 and spent the day ‘handing out condoms and flexing’.
They described how Jussie instructed them to call him racial and homophobic slurs and say they were Trump fans when they carried out the attack on January 29, 2019.
He allegedly told them to punch him but ‘pull the punches’ so as not to hurt him when they struck him
Two Chicago cops testified that Jussie describes his attackers to them as being white.
Olabinjo Osundairo took the stand on Thursday afternoon at Smollett’s trial with the intention of ‘getting the truth out’, he said. He said he had made no arrangements or deals with the prosecution, and was testifying to share what happened on January 29, 2019. He denied being homophobic, as Jussie’s team had suggested, and said he worked as a bouncer at a gay club for a year
Abel Osundairo, who Jussie’s lawyers claimed he was in a relationship with, is pictured on his way back into court on Thursday after going to Popeye’s for lunch. He told DailyMail.com he was ‘glad every day’ that the trial was underway
Olabinjo Osundairo (right) told the court that he wasn’t a homophobe like Jussie’s lawyers claimed he was, and had worked as a bouncer at a gay club. He testified that in 2015, he dressed up as a Trojan warrior and went to Pride ‘handing out condoms and flexing’. Jussie’s attorneys suggested that Jussie had a sexual relationship with Abel Osundairo (left) and that the pair ‘masturbated in bathhouses’
Smollett is accused of lying to police when he reported he was the victim of a racist, anti-gay attack in downtown Chicago nearly three years ago
The two Osundairo brothers allege that Smollett set them up to perform the attack. They prayed together before the trial
The brothers and their legal team share a prayer outside court on Thursday in Chicago before heading into the trial
