I hate to say it, but something else happened in the Jussie Smollett case. I wished I didn't need to do another story on this matter, but here we are anyways. This will be my fifth installment of this case. On Tuesday, April 23, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo (the brothers who allegedly attacked Jussie) sued Jussie's lawyers for defamation. Defamation, for those who don't know, is the act of communicating false statements about a person that injure the reputation of that person.
In short, the Osundairo brothers are suing Jussie's lawyers for ruining their professional and personal reputations.
Both brothers were continually the topic of hatred during and especially after the court cases deciding Jussie's fate. The brothers were forcefully put into the public eye under a bad light portraying them as the perpetrators of an alleged crime that based on evidence might not have even taken place. Trying to come back from being accused of a homophobic attack is no small feat especially when the people on the other side are not only against you but want to make everyone against them. According to the Washington Post article on the matter, the Osundairo brothers are not seeking a specified amount, but it would be more than $75,000 in compensatory and damages and other costs. The article also talks about the various ways that Jussie's lawyers further went after the Osundairo brothers even after Jussie's charges were dropped.
There was no court date listed as this is new and ongoing.
Can I just say how unsurprised I was when I heard about them suing? I mean seriously, wouldn't you do the same thing if your name and reputation were as destroyed as theirs? I would if I had the money to do so that is. Otherwise, I'm moving out of the country and changing my name. Which also is a lot of money, so actually I don't know what I would do and hope I never get put into that kind of a situation. Until I read the articles talking about the situation, I had no idea to what extent the lawyers went to defame their names and reputation even after the charges were dropped.
In my mind, isn't the job of a lawyer done once the case is decided on? In other words, they got Jussie's charges dropped, so why are they further bad mouthing the other people involved. This whole case is one big mess that I thought had an ending, but apparently not. It will be a while until the lawsuit goes through and it is determined whether or not the lawyers will pay for defamation or not, and if they do by how much. In other words, there will be another story on the matter to talk about what happens next.
