- The Chicago Police Department released records and videos on Monday, related to the investigation into "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett, who police alleged organized an attack against himself in January.
- A snippet of the body cam footage released by Chicago police shows Smollett with rope around his neck.
- Chicago police also released a video of Smollett's alleged attackers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, riding inside a taxi on the night of the alleged attack.
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The Chicago Police Department released records and videos on Monday related to the investigation into "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett, who police alleged organized an attack against himself in January.
A snippet of the body cam footage released by Chicago police shows Smollett with rope around his neck following the alleged attack on January 29.
In the video, an officer asks him if he wants to take off the rope.
"There's bleach on me. They poured bleach on me," Smollett told police in the video, posted on Twitter by CBS News.
“There’s bleach on me. They poured bleach on me,” Jussie Smollett told police the night of the alleged attack in Chicago. “Do you want to take it off or anything?” Chicago police officer asks Jussie Smollett about the rope around his neck. https://t.co/4mmKwNVaBb pic.twitter.com/WfsuKc3PrW
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) June 24, 2019
Smollett can be heard at the end of the video telling officers that he didn't want to be filmed, and the officers proceed to turn off their body cameras.
Chicago police also released a video of Smollett's alleged attackers, brothers Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, riding inside a taxi on the night of the alleged attack. The brothers told police that they were paid to participate in the allegedly staged attack.
SMOLLETT VIDEOS RELEASED: On January 29, 2019, the Osundairo brothers took an Uber to the 1400 block of North Wells Street, got out and hailed a taxi to the location of the alleged attack on North Water Street.https://t.co/3nV0o6q5MN pic.twitter.com/ob5RNnFKXz
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) June 24, 2019
Smollett, who is African American and gay, told the Chicago Police that he was a victim of assault after two men had assaulted him, yelled racist and homophobic slurs, put a noose around his neck, and poured bleach on him, NBC Chicago reported.
The case was initially investigated as a hate crime, but in February Smollett was charged with filing a false police report (a felony) with police alleging that he organized the attack himself. A grand jury in Cook County indicted him on 16 charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.
However, at the end of March, the charges were dropped; in exchange, Smollett forfeited his $10,000 bond. Smollett has repeatedly denied that he staged the attack.
A Cook County judge ruled on Friday that a special prosecutor will be appointed in the case following calls for an investigation into why the charges were dropped.
"We stand firmly behind the work of detectives in investigating the fabricated incident reported by Jussie Smollett," CPD spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi wrote in an email to INSIDER. "We will fully cooperate with the court appointed special prosecutor that will be named."
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