Disgraced actor Jussie Smollett and his legal team got busy soon after he was granted a reprieve from time in jail pending his appeal.
The former “Empire” star’s attorney has filed a lawsuit against the infamous Osundairo brothers, the Nigerian-American duo who prosecutors say helped Smollett conspire to stage a faux hate crime in January 2019.
In the “malicious prosecution” lawsuit documents obtained by Rolling Stone, attorney Mark Geragos claims that Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo filed a frivolous lawsuit against Smollett in 2019 “out of thin air” that was devoid of merit. That lawsuit has since been dismissed in court. Geragos also said the brothers went on the “Reasonable Doubt” podcast in 2019 to accuse Geragos of defaming them with false statements.
“They fabricated statements out of thin air and falsely attributed them to Mr. Geragos. In actuality, and as the transcript of the podcast reveals, Mr. Geragos never said anything remotely similar to what the complaint alleged,” the legal documents state.
“Since the time the fraudulent lawsuit was filed, [Geragos and his firm] have wasted considerable time, effort, and resources to defend themselves, and to mitigate the damage to their reputation that flowed from the defendants’ reckless and malicious actions,” the filing states.
The lawsuit also states that the Osundairo brothers, whose fledgling careers as extras on “Empire” stalled abruptly after being humiliated nationally, tried to leverage their infamy “for shameless self-promotion and monetary gain.”
