The two siblings who were compensated by actor Jussie Smollett to organize a fabricated hate crime expressed their views on the impact it created across the country.
Bola and Ola, also known as Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, expressed their apologies for participating in the 2019 deception. They explained that they had agreed to Smollett's plan in hopes of leveraging his influential position as a renowned actor to advance their own careers.
"I just first want to apologize to everyone in the audience, the country and anyone who might have been affected by this directly. When we were asked to partake in this, we really didn't foresee the ramifications of what something like this could do to the country," Ola Osundairo explained during a Thursday appearance on "Hannity."
"We allowed our ambition to cloud our judgment."
Smollett, who identifies as both Black and gay, allegedly tried to portray Trump supporters as racist and homophobic. He initially claimed that White "attackers" hurled racial epithets at him and shouted "this is MAGA country" while assaulting him and placing a rope around his neck.
Gloria Rodriguez, the brothers' legal representative, stated that her initial instinct upon learning of the event was that both siblings were innocent.
"My immediate thought wasn't, ‘Oh my God, this is a national spotlight case.’ My immediate thought was, ‘Oh, my God, I have two innocent guys here that are being accused of doing this horrific hate crime," she said.
"My natural instinct really was to first, unlike a lot of the journalists that were out there reporting this, my instinct was to first get a handle on the facts. And that same night that I met them, I went by myself, had to cancel my plans with my wife and say, ‘I've got to go down to the scene of the crime.’ And I looked around and I just remember thinking, it is dark, it is late out and there's nobody out here. It's super safe. It's... this is ridiculous that this would happen."
The Osundairo siblings assert that all their actions on that particular night were carried per the request of Smollett.
Smollett was convicted on five of the six disorderly conduct charges brought against him after a nearly two-week trial in 2021.
He received a sentence of 150 days in jail and 30 months of probation for the incident. However, Smollett was released from jail after serving only six days, as he awaits the outcome of his appeal.
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