Jussie Smollett’s lawyers fire back at Osundairo brothers’ defamation suit as judge rules it can go forward

foxnews.com:

Attorneys representing Jussie Smollett in his fake hate crime case have filed a malicious prosecution complaint in response to a defamation suit filed by Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo — two brothers who testified that they had participated in the elaborate hoax — claiming that one lawyer on the defense team defamed the pair when she suggested they had been wearing "whiteface" while carrying out of the ordeal.

Tina Glandian made comments on NBC's "Today" show in March 2019, shortly after the Cook County State's Attorney announced it was dropping charges accusing Smollett of lying to police about the incident two months earlier, and in those remarks, Glandian alleged that the Osundairo brothers, who hail from Nigeria and are Black, might have "put makeup on" to disguise their color.

A judge in Chicago has paved the way for the defamation suit to move forward against Glandian after ruling in favor of the Osundairo brothers’ claim that the counselor’s comments could have been taken as defamatory and alleged that remarks were an apparent attempt by the lawyer to "dispel the inconsistency in Smollett’s story (the attackers had light skin) and bolster her contention that the plaintiffs (who are not light skinned) were Smollett’s attackers." Brothers Olabinjo Osundairo, right, and Abimbola Osundairo, appear outside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago, Feb.

24, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) "Taken in context, Glandian was asserting plaintiffs’ involvement in a racially motivated attack," U.S.