Photo: Chicago Police Department

Surveillance image of two people of interest in Jussie Smollett case.

An attorney representing the brothers at the centre of an investigation into the attack reported by Jussie Smollett said Wednesday that her clients "manned up" and testified in front of a grand jury, before prosecutors charged the "Empire" actor with filing a false police report.

Gloria Schmidt spoke to reporters outside a Chicago courthouse where the brothers met with the grand jury, which was collecting evidence in the case. Without providing details, she said the two men accepted money from Smollett and wanted to come clean. She said they weren't motivated by any promises from prosecutors.

"There was never a change of heart," Schmidt said. "There was a point where this story needed to be told, and they manned up and they said, 'We're gonna correct this.' Plea deal, immunity, all of that — they don't' care about that."

The brothers, identified by Schmidt as Abimbola "Abel" Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, are of Nigerian descent. But they told a reporter at CBS2-Chicago that they were "born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens."

They are bodybuilders who have developed an online following and have dabbled in acting and at least one failed business venture, according to social media posts and news reports.

Abimbola Osundairo, 25, graduated from Lake View High School in Chicago, where he participated in football, track and field, soccer and wrestling, before joining the football team at Quincy University in western Illinois, according to a football profile on the university's website. Olabinjo Osundairo, 27, also was on the Quincy football team and had attended Latmos Comprehensive College in Lagos, Nigeria, according to his football profile.

The brothers also told a CBS2 reporter in a phone interview that they are not racist, homophobic or anti-Trump, the news station reported.

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that two masked men hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him before beating him up and throwing some kind of chemical on him the early morning of Jan. 29. He also said his attackers shouted, "This is MAGA country," an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," and looped a rope around his neck.

Chicago police said they'd reviewed video of Smollett walking downtown but found nothing showing an attack. They released images of two people, later identified as the brothers, who they called "persons of interest" in the case because they were in the area at the time.

The Osundairos were arrested in the case Feb. 13 at O'Hare International Airport after returning from Nigeria when police learned at least one of them worked on "Empire." Police said they left for Nigeria on the day of the attack. But they were released after two days, when police said the "investigation had shifted" following interviews with the brothers.

The Cook County State's Attorney's office charged the 36-year-old Smollett on Wednesday with felony disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report.