Prosecutors: Jussie Smollett paid brothers $3,500 for staged attack

CHICAGO — Two brothers who told police that Jussie Smollett paid them $3,500 to help stage an attack on himself were linked to the actor through the “Empire” television series, and court documents filed Thursday allege one of the men provided Smollett with designer drugs.

Smollett appeared in court for a bond hearing one day after prosecutors charged him with a felony for allegedly concocting a story about being attacked by two men who shouted racist and homophobic slurs, doused him with a chemical and draped a noose around his neck.

In a four-page court document laying out the allegations against Smollett, prosecutors allege Smollett hired the brothers, Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, to buy masks and a rope — transactions recorded on surveillance video. As for the alleged attack, the actor instructed Abel Osundairo to “not hurt him too badly and give him a chance to appear to fight back,” according to the filing.

The Osundairos, who are of Nigerian descent, have said they were born and raised in Chicago.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Thursday that investigators reviewed extensive phone records between Smollett and the brothers, including calls from when the brothers were in Nigeria after the allegedly staged attack.

Gloria Schmidt, an attorney for the brothers, spoke to reporters Wednesday outside a Chicago courthouse where they met with the grand jury, which was collecting evidence in the case. Schmidt said the two men wanted to come clean and weren’t motivated by any promises from prosecutors.

“There was never a change of heart,” Schmidt said. “There was a point where this story needed to be told, and they manned up and they said, ‘We’re gonna correct this.’ Plea deal, immunity, all of that — they don’t care about that.”

Prosecutors said Smollett’s