The overturn of Jussie Smollett’s conviction had his “racist white MAGA Trump supporter” accomplices laughing as they set their sights on following Mike Tyson’s latest move.
(Video: NewsNation)
Nearly six years after the line “This is MAGA country” spawned its own series of spoofs, the Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday to discard the conviction for allegedly orchestrating a hate crime hoax in Chicago. The following day, brothers and admitted “attackers” Olabinjo “Ola” and Abimbola “Bola” Osundairo joined NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” with their reaction to Smollett’s acting.
“As you listened to that account from Jussie again, and I’ve heard it a number of times, I’m sure you have too, but every time I hear it, I still find it to be amazing,” said host Dan Abrams. “What’s your reaction to listening to that today?”
“My reaction is that Jussie is a great actor. He is good at what he does. And people really believe him,” responded Bola. “And I guess that’s what makes a good actor, when people don’t know that you’re acting. But every time I listen to him and I hear him, I’m disappointed because he does not and cannot say the truth.”
Likewise, Ola chimed in, “My reaction to the court’s ruling was that it made sense. The real injustice here was the sweetheart deal that [Cook County State’s Attorney] Kim Foxx gave him in the first place, which allowed him to go on and profess his innocence.”
After a 5-0 decision where two justices had abstained, Justice Elizabeth Rochford had stated in the court’s opinion, “We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust. Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”
“Because the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement with defendant and defendant performed his part of the agreement,” she later wrote, “the second prosecution was barred.”
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb had expressed his disappointment that Chicago would not get the over $120,000 in expenses the Windy City had used to investigate the alleged hoax as restitution and reminded in a statement, “The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct.”
“The racist white MAGA Trump supporters. I mean, that’s the narrative. He is white. Can’t he pass for a white guy?” Bola jokingly offered as he pointed to his brother wearing a custom MAGA hat that replaced the “A” with an image of Africa. In teasing the reports of a hate crime, they’d joked about how Ola “loathes” black people.
Ola reacted, “I think I do a pretty good job,” before going on to state, “We are very, very looking forward to putting all of this behind. It’s been how long now? Four or five years.”
As the brothers had noted that Smollett never admitted they were the ones hired in the alleged hoax, Ola went on, “We pretty much just want to move on with our acting careers and boxing as well. My brother should be fighting Jake Paul real soon.”
“Yes, hopefully, if he accepts the fight,” said Bola after the YouTuber had come off his unanimous decision victory against boxing legend Mike Tyson, “I’ll be fighting Jake Paul.”
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