WARNING: This post contains video that may upset or offend.
The endless drip of information from Jussie Smollett’s unsealed criminal case file took a harsh turn Monday with new video dropped by the Chicago Police department.
Among the nearly 70 hours of footage, one particular jarring video stands out of the scene inside’s the Empire star’s upscale Windy City apartment soon after the alleged “hate crime” attack against the actor in the early morning of January 29.
As shown in a Twitter post below by a reporter from ABC’s Chicago affiliate, Smollet is depicted on the CPD body cam with the rope used in the now disputed assault still around his neck.
“Wanna take it off?” the cop asks, with Smollett replying that the people who attacked put it on him and he wanted the police to see it before he removed it. Soon afterwards, a member of Smollett’s management team requests that the body cam be turned off, as it is.
The tactically released video comes just days after a state judge recommended that a special prosecutor be appointed in the Smollett case, which saw all charges against the actor disappear in a D.A. deal in late March. The Chicago Police had promised on May 30 that “pertinent video files” would be made public sooner or later.
After the actor initially attracted widespread sympathy for being subjected to a racial and homophobic attack, Cook County prosecutors eventually charged Smollett with 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report. The actor maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty. In a seemingly sudden move March 26, the state’s attorney’s office dropped the charges and sealed the case after Smollett agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bail and perform community service.
In the closing days of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s regime, the city sued Smollett in civil court to recover more than $130,000 it allegedly spent in police overtime hours investigating the case. That case is still ongoing, as is a defamation lawsuit against some of Smollett’s legal team by brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo, whom Chicago police said were paid by the actor to plan and coordinate the alleged fake assault on that cold Chicago early morning in January.
Another video the CPD released today shows the O’Hare arrest of Abel Osundairo as he returned from a trip to Nigeria earlier this year.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline
