CHICAGO — Two brothers who say they helped Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack against himself filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the “Empire” actor’s attorneys, alleging that they repeatedly asserted publicly that the brothers carried out a real, bigoted attack on Smollett despite knowing that wasn’t true.The suit contends that even after police and prosecutors alleged that the Jan.
The brothers didn’t appear at a news conference their attorneys held Tuesday, but they issued a statement, saying “We have sat back and watched lie after lie being fabricated about us in the media only so one big lie can continue to have life. These lies are destroying our character and reputation in our personal and professional lives.”
It also accuses Smollett of taking advantage of the brothers’ own aspirations to establish TV and movie careers by manipulating them into taking part in the alleged hoax. Police allege that Smollett paid the brothers to help him stage an attack in which he said two masked men beat him, hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, doused him with a chemical substance and looped a rope around his neck.