*Attorney Gloria Schmidt appeared on “Good Morning America” on Monday for an interview about her clients, Ola and Abel Osundairo, who allegedly helped Jussie Smollett orchestrate a fake hate crime. Schmidt says the brothers feel “betrayed” by the actor.
“I really look at the dynamic between loyalty and someone who was in a position of trust with my clients who really just took advantage of them,” Schmidt said Monday on GMA.
“They worked with Jussie,” she continued. “They’ve known him. They were friends with him. This was someone who the brothers thought could help their career. Obviously, Mr. Smollett had connections. He had a good position with Fox, so this was someone that they had trusted to consider their best interests.”
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Smollett was arrested last month for allegedly conspiring with the brothers to orchestrate the attack. He was indicted on 16 counts by a grand jury last week.
Schmidt said Jussie gave the brothers $3,500 for a personal training program, but said it would be an “easy narrative” to the plot he was cooking up.
“It’s unfortunately a very complicated relationship for them, because if you’re friends, and I’m saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to pay you for training, I’m also asking you to do me a favor,’ ” she told host George Stephanopoulos.
She went on to say that the “favor” was to stage the hate crime.
Smollett’s legal team has maintained his innocence.
On Friday, a grand jury in Chicago hit the singer with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for fabricating the alleged Jan. 29 attack during which he claims two masked white males beat him up, hurled racial and homophobic slurs and poured some sort of chemical on him.
Police eventually concluded that Smollett hired the brothers to stage the attack.
Following his arrest last month, Fox removed Jussie from the final two episodes of Season 5 of “Empire..”
He is due back in court on March 14.
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