One of Jussie Smollett’s defense lawyers sued the star witnesses at his recent hate hoax trial for “malicious prosecution” Friday, saying recently dismissed defamation claims against him were fabricated “out of thin air,” wasting his time and money.
The new civil lawsuit filed by Mark Geragos against brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo in Illinois state court followed shortly after a federal judge allowed a separate defamation claim against fellow Geragos and Geragos lawyer Tina Glandian to proceed.
In his new lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone, Mark Geragos says the Osundairo brothers sued him in April 2019 with “frivolous and fraudulent” claims that he defamed them on his podcast Reasonable Doubt earlier that month.
“They fabricated statements out of thin air and falsely attributed them to Mr. Geragos. In actuality, and as the transcript of the podcast reveals, Mr. Geragos never said anything remotely similar to what the complaint alleged,” the new lawsuit states. The defamation claims against Mark Geragos were dismissed in federal court prior to the new lawsuit.
“Since the time the fraudulent lawsuit was filed, [Geragos and his firm] have wasted considerable time, effort, and resources to defend themselves, and to mitigate the damage to their reputation that flowed from defendants’ reckless and malicious actions,” the new filing states.
A lawyer for the brothers did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
In a separate decision late Thursday, a federal court judge ruled that the bodybuilding brothers — who testified at Smollett’s December trial that the Empire actor paid them to stage a racist and antigay attack on him in January 2019 — could forge ahead with their claim that Glandian defamed them when she told NBC’s Today show that it was possible the brothers wore “whiteface” makeup during what she characterized as a legitimate assault.
Glandian told Today’s Savannah Guthrie in March 2019 that Smollett told police he believed at least one of his attackers had “white or pale skin” under the ski mask he was wearing. She then said it was possible the Osundairo brothers, who are Nigerian and who were later connected to the attack through surveillance video, could have used “makeup” to appear white.
Glandian has argued her statement was constitutionally protected opinion and that wearing “whiteface” is not indicative of a hate crime. The federal judge on the case disagreed.
“Taken in context, Glandian was asserting [the brothers’] involvement in a racially motivated attack,” U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland wrote. “Based on the ‘whiteface’ statement, [the brothers] have plausibly alleged defamation per se and false light.”
Smollett, 39, was convicted of orchestrating the hate hoax at trial and ordered to serve five months in jail. He ended up spending six nights in Cook County Jail before he was released Wednesday night when an Illinois appellate court ordered him released on bond pending his appeal.