The Curious Story of Jussie Smollett and the Attack

Update Feb 17, 2019 – Chicago Police have stated that they no longer consider Jussie Smollett a victim in this case. They have released the two Nigerian men after questioning revealed that their answers “changed the trajectory” of the investigation. They have planned to reach out to Smollett’s attorney to obtain another interview. Filing a false police report is a crime.

Jussie Smollett told police that he was attacked by two white men who shouted “This is MAGA country.” Police arrested two brothers from Nigeria,
Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo (“Abel and Ola”), both of whom have ties to Jussie Smollett’s “Empire” show, according to TMZ. Both were arrested for Battery. Both brothers are black, which raises some questions. Was the attack staged?

Originally, Smollett reported it as a “hate crime”- and so the investigation began. There was no actual surveillance video of the incident. He claimed that the attackers put a rope around his neck, poured “an unknown substance” in his face, and shouted racial and “homophobic” slurs. A photo of him inside the lobby with a rope around his neck has been circulating, but police won’t say whether they have any pictures of him with it outside of the building where the attack allegedly took place.

Jussie Smollett may have to go to a police lineup to “identify” the two men. That’s problematic. He follows both suspects on Instagram, which begs the question: how well did he know them and again, was the attack staged?

This information is according to family who says home was ransacked. I asked family why they think police picked the two brothers up for questioning and they replied by saying the men left for #Nigeria the day of the attack. @cbschicago

— Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) February 14, 2019

Police subpoenaed Smollett’s phone records from his cell phone provider before he provided a partial list to them in a PDF. So all police had to do was compare the records and find out who he left out. The PDF was rejected by police because a PDF can be manipulated, so only a real phone bill or a download was acceptable as evidence. Police have stated from the beginning that they consider Smollett a victim and investigated the incident as such, according to CWBChicago.

…As CWBChicago reported over a week ago, investigators already had Smollett’s complete phone records via subpoena of his provider.

— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) February 14, 2019

There was no video of the attack, but a grainy surveillance picture of two men was allegedly identified by Jussie Smollett as his attackers. Chicago police brought Smollett in for another round of questioning on Thursday. The two brothers were first questioned on Wednesday when they were picked up at O’Hare airport.

What would be the motive to say that white men attacked him? What would be the motive for two black guys that Smollett knew from the show to attack him in the middle of the night? He appears to be in a bit of trouble. Perhaps the featured photo, a screenshot of a recent Smollett photo answers both questions perfectly.