he wanted able to attack him but not hurt him too badly and give him a chance to appear to fight back. defendant smollett also included he wanted ola to place a rope around his neck, pour gasoline on him and yell "this is maga country." prior to the brothers getting out of smollett's car, smollett provided able with a $100 bill to purchase the rope, gasoline, ski masks, gloves and red baseball caps, which resemble the ones that say make america great again. on the late morning of sunday january 27th, 2019, smollett drove his vehicle back to the neighborhood to pick up the brothers and show them the scene where he wanted the staged attack to take place. smollett directed the brothers' attention toward a surveillance camera on the corner, which he believed would capture the incident. there was a change in the plan in that bleach was going to be used instead of gasoline during the simulated attack.