Newly released footage has surfaced of Jussie Smollett and Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo walking in the same Chicago neighborhood where the actor said he was attacked. Police have accused Smollett of staging the incident and paying the brothers to help him.
Reportedly, the footage was taken around Smollett’s high-rise and was shot on January 29 between 1:45 a.m. and 2 a.m., possibly before the time of when the alleged assault was supposed to have occurred.
In one part of the video, one of the Osundairo brothers can be seen walking under a street light, where he’s seen wearing a red cap.
And police said it’s the same cap the brothers were seen buying in a hardware store some time ago, along with rope and other things they needed for the alleged attack. The brothers have already claimed that Smollett told them to purchase those items.
Elsewhere in the newly released clip, the actor can be seen walking on the same block as the brothers but in the opposite direction.
Plus, he’s walking in the middle of the street toward a Subway restaurant, which matches up with what he told police about where he was heading before the alleged attack took place.
The former “Empire” star is also seen wearing a white sweater in the video that looks like the same one he wore when police showed up to his apartment after he filed a report.
On top of that, there’s footage of the Osundairo brothers walking past a loading dock, then Smollett walks past that same loading dock 27 seconds later but again in the opposite direction.
The three men aren’t conversing in the video, and they’re not seen walking together either. There’s another part of the clip that shows the brothers sitting on a bench as well.
The brothers’ attorney, Gloria Schmidt, told Fox News that as part of the alleged hoax, her clients were instructed by Smollett to wait by the bench until they were ready to approach him.
In March Smollett was hit with a 16-count indictment after police said he lied about the assault, but those charges were later dropped by a top prosecution aide who was appointed by Chicago State Attorney Kim Foxx.
The decision to drop the charges was blasted by many, including former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who called it a “whitewash of justice.”
But Smollett isn’t out of trouble just yet, because last month a judge appointed a special prosecutor to review the case, and that person may still charge the actor based on the investigation.
