Two brothers who said they helped Empire actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack against himself are suing his lawyers for defamation.
A lawyer for Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo filed the US federal lawsuit in Chicago on behalf of the brothers.
It names Mark Geragos and his law firm as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr Geragos and his firm continued to say publicly in widely reported statements that the brothers "led a criminally homophobic, racist and violent attack against Mr Smollett", even though they knew that wasn't true.
Police alleged that Mr Smollett paid the brothers $3,500 to help him stage a January 29 attack in which he said two masked men beat him, hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, doused him with some sort of chemical substance and looped a rope around his neck.
Mr Smollett, 36, maintains that the attack was not staged.
Prosecutors dropped 16 charges of disorderly conduct after alleging the star lied to police, although authorities still maintain he is guilty.
He had faced up to 48 years behind bars on 16 felony counts of filing a false police report.
