The Lawsuits Are Flying In The Jussie Smollett Saga

Even though Jussie Smollett was convicted of telling lies to the police about getting attacked in a hate crime and was sentenced to 150 days in Cook County Jail, this saga, which started in January 2019, is not over. Last week, a judge let Jussie, who still claims he’s innocent, out of the clink while his lawyers work on his appeal. And yesterday, one of Jussie’s lawyers Mark Geragos hit Abimbola (aka Abel) and Olabinjo (aka Ola) Osundairo with a malicious prosecution lawsuit for falsely accusing him of making shit up about their involvement in the stunt-gone-wrong. The Osundairos are the bodybuilding brothers who say they were paid $3,500 by Jussie to fake attack him.

On top of that, a federal judge in Chicago also ruled yesterday that the Osundairos’ defamation lawsuit against another one of Jussie’s lawyers, Tina Glandian, can continue. The brothers sued Tina for saying that they possibly wore “whiteface” while attacking Jussie. So basically, everyone is suing everyone!

Mark Geragos’ lawsuit against the Osundairos is in response to a defamation lawsuit that they filed against him in 2019. In April 2019, the Osundairos sued Mark for making “false and frivolous” claims about them while talking about the Jussie case on his podcast. The brothers argued that Mark implied they were guilty of an actual hate crime and attacked Jussie for real. But the Osundairo brothers, who were the state’s star witnesses during the Jussie trial, say that they did not criminally conspire to attack Jussie but helped him with the hoax for money. A federal court eventually dismissed the Osundairos’ lawsuit against Mark. And now Rolling Stone says that Mark is suing them for wasting his and his firm’s time:

“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 new lawsuit states. The defamation claims against Mark Geragos were dismissed in federal court prior to the new lawsuit.

“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 defendants’ reckless and malicious actions,” the filing states.

Mark’s lawsuit also accuses the brothers of using the Jussie saga to shamelessly promote themselves and make money by selling an NFT collection inspired by the attack. NFTs are the Jameela Jamil of the digital world because they always find a way to insert themselves into absolutely EVERYTHING!

The new lawsuit further alleges the Osundairo brothers sought to “exploit” their involvement in Smollett’s alleged attack “for shameless self-promotion and monetary gain.” It claims that when the brothers’ allegations against Geragos “did not pan out,” they “tried to monetize their newfound infamy” by launching an NFT collection depicting a Subway restaurant renamed as “Subday,” a hardware store and a black Mercedes-Benz with a red hat on its dashboard. The brothers also used their Instagram accounts to sell $60 red baseball caps featuring a play on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, the lawsuit reads.

Smollett told Chicago Police he was returning from a Subway restaurant when his alleged attackers dropped a noose around his neck, poured an unknown liquid on his body, pelted him with racist and homophobic slurs and yelled, “This is MAGA country!”

“The entire NFT collection is intended as some sort of twisted parody of an event which the Osundairo brothers claimed to have ‘tremendous regret’ over,” Geragos’ lawsuit states.

And cut to everyone throwing a side-eye at Mark Geragos for accusing the Osundairos of shamelessness when his client was convicted of shamelessly orchestrating a staged hate crime to allegedly boost his profile.

Gregory Kulis, one of the Osundairo brother’s lawyers, didn’t have anything to say about Mark’s lawsuit but pointed out that the brothers’ lawsuit against Tina Glandian is moving forward. In March 2019, Tina was on the Today show to talk about the Jussie situation and suggested that the brothers disguised themselves in “whiteface” to attack Jussie. Tina said on Today that in a video that the brothers posted online, one of them is in white makeup as The Joker, so her theory is possible. Tina tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, saying that her opinion is protected by the Constitution, but Judge Mary Rowland disagreed with her and the brothers’ lawsuit will move forward:

Glandian has argued her statement was constitutionally protected opinion and that wearing “whiteface” is not indicative of a hate crime. The court disagreed. “Taken in context, Glandian was asserting [the brothers’] involvement in a racially motivated attack,” U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland wrote in her ruling. “Based on the ‘whiteface’ statement, [the brothers] have plausibly alleged defamation per se and false light.”

Because the Osundairo brothers have filed lawsuits against two of Jussie’s lawyers, it may be a matter of time before they file a lawsuit against Jussie himself for denying that he paid them to fake attack him. And you know, Jussie may have a good defense. During his trial, Jussie testified that the $3,500 check was for “nutrition and training” advice from Abel. Jussie also testified that he went to a bathhouse with Abel and they “did drugs and made out a little bit, and this time we masturbated together.” So Jussie could argue that during their fap time fun, he breathlessly moaned to Abel, “Bust some fat hot cum, honey.” But because Abel was high and couldn’t hear that clearly over the sound of his own moans, he mistakenly thought Jussie said, “Bust a fake hate crime on me.” Jussie really should’ve used that defense in his criminal trial. Big mistake!

Pics: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com, Instagram