Recently released security footage show the brothers involved in the Jussie Smollett attack buying supplies for the alleged “staged hate crime.”
Chicago reporter Charlie De Mar released footage from a convenience store where the Osundairo brothers bough the supplies they used in the attack against Smollett, who has since been charged with a felony for allegedly filing a false police report.
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“I tracked down surveillance of the Osundairo’s buying supplies before ‘attack,’” De Mar tweeted alongside the video. “Sources say Jussie Smollet told brothers what to buy. Countless phone calls placed for this. Visited more stores than I wish to admit.”
EXCLUSIVE:
I tracked down surveillance of the Osundairo’s buying supplies before “attack”
Sources say Jussie Smollet told brothers what to buy.
Countless phone calls placed for this.
Visited more stores than I wish to admit. @cbschicago //t.co/GT6h2g6Y9a pic.twitter.com/ULr3UTDe9Q
โ Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) February 20, 2019
The new footage from before the attack came a few hours before the Empire actor was charged with felony disorderly conduct after allegedly filing a false police report.
The charges, previous announcement Smollett was being viewed as a suspect, came after Ola and Abel Osundairo testified in front of a grand jury for over two hours. The brothers claimed they were fired by Smollett to stage the attack and pass it off as a hate crime.
Back in January, Smollet claimed that two masked individuals attacked him while yelling racial and homophobic slurs at him. However, law enforcement sources told local news outlets the brothers told authorities the actor had paid them $3,500 to participate in the attack before they went to Nigeria the day of the incident, and were promised $500 when they returned to Chicago.
Weeks later, Smollett will be surrendering to police facing one felony charge.
“Felony criminal charges have been approved by @CookCountySAO against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct / Filing a False Police Report,” Chicago P.D. Chief Communications Officer Guglielmi wrote on Twitter Thursday. “Detectives will make contact with his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest.”
A court hearing regarding Smollett’s bond is set for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Though Smollett has not commented on his charges publicly, his lawyers previously issued a statement denying allegations of his involvement in the incident.
“As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” the statement read. “He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.”
If found guilty, the actor could face a potential sentence of one to three years in prison.
“Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked,” Smollett’s attorneys, Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson said in a statement first released by PEOPLE. “Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.”