Gloria Schmidt, the attorney for Abel and Ola Osundairo, the men who say Jussie Smollett paid them to stage an attack on him, told CBSN on Monday, “This entire thing started because they put their trust in the wrong person.”
“You have someone here who is a celebrity type, someone here in a position of trust, someone who works with these people, someone who is able to help their careers if he so wants to — and then he betrays them,” Schmidt said, reiterating that her clients “feel tremendously regretful” about their role. “So the impact that this has had — not only on them, but on minority populations — that weighs very heavily on them.”
Watch snippets of the interview below.
Gloria Schmidt, attorney for Osundairo brothers, told CBSN they are "tremendously regretful" for their role in the alleged hoax attack on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett https://t.co/vk5Slfa36v pic.twitter.com/IZLnCod1ZL
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 11, 2019
"This entire thing started because they put their trust in the wrong person," Osundario brothers' attorney said on CBSN. pic.twitter.com/Z8IFah8b0r
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 11, 2019
On Friday, Smollett was indicted on 16 felony counts by the grand jury. The “Empire” star was originally charged with one felony count for filing a false police report by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office last month, in connection to the incident that he reported on Jan. 29 where he said he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs and referenced “MAGA.”
Chicago PD Supt. Eddie Johnson said Smollett staged the attack because he was displeased with his pay on the Fox hip-hop soap opera.
Smollett surrendered himself to Chicago police on Feb. 21, hours after he was first formally charged. He was released from police custody later that afternoon, after posting bail and surrendering his passport following a bond hearing.