Actor Jussie Smollett has been accused of taking advantage of his friendship with the brothers he allegedly hired to stage his attack.

Jussie has been charged with 16 felony counts for reportedly lying to police about being assaulted by racists outside his apartment in Chicago, Illinois on January 29.

In January, Smollett told police that two masked men attacked him, put a rope around his neck and poured bleach on him as he was walking home from a Subway restaurant.

She said her clients are remorseful for their role in the situation and they hope it opens dialogue for people in minority communities and those that have suffered hate crimes. During a press conference last month, Eddie claimed Jussie took "drastic and illegal tactics to gain attention", adding the actor "concocted a story" about an alleged hate crime that "took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career".

The siblings claimed Smollett had paid them to help him pull off the hoax after meeting through his work on hip-hop drama series "Empire", and they were subsequently released without charge.

Meanwhile, an attorney for the brothers involved in the case says her clients were betrayed by Smollett. "They also did not know that their loyalty to him would be betrayed".

Schmidt said the Osundairo brothers were friends with Smollett and worked out with him. According to TMZ, Jussie did pay Ola and Abel Osundairo, but it was for fitness and health training.

Police investigated Smollett's allegations for three weeks, and have said it was not until the Osundairo brothers had been in custody for almost two days that the investigation switched from an alleged hate crime to an alleged hoax.

"We were able to fish it out, if you will, and tell the commander there's something that doesn't match with the narrative that had been put out by Mr. Smollett", she said. "These are details that came out with my clients fully cooperating with the police", she said.

Schmidt said she does not know if the brothers will testify against Smollett at trial, noting it's not up to her who prosecutors call as witnesses. "Someone they had trusted to consider their best interest". "I think it's a little bit of both", she said.

Smollett is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

Mark Geragos, Smollett's attorney, spoke with Anderson Cooper on Friday and said Smollett refused to sign a police complaint after the incident because "he could not believe it".