Chicago Police on Thursday released hundreds of documents related to the case against Empire actor Jussie Smollett.
One of the documents (all of them can be found below) shows that on February 13, the police interviewed Abel and Ola Osundairo. On that day, they said Smollett planned and staged the attack. The very next day, Feb. 14, Smollett’s full interview on Good Morning America about the alleged attack aired. He said he was “pissed off” about the “attackers” and about those doubting his story.
“It’s like, you know, at first, it was a thing of, like, ‘Listen, if I tell the truth then that’s it, ’cause it’s the truth.’ Then it became a thing of like, ‘Oh, how can you doubt that?’ Like, how do you– how do you not believe that? It’s the truth,” he said. “And then it became a thing of like, ‘Oh, it’s not necessarily that you don’t believe that this is the truth, you don’t even want to see the truth.'”
Cook County Judge Stephen Watkins ordered the release of these documents last week. Smollett’s lawyers got the records for his case sealed at the March hearing (Watkins presided) where the 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false report were dismissed. Smollett lost his right to privacy regarding the records do to his own actions.
“Smollett voluntarily appeared on national television speaking about the incident in detail,” Watkins said. “After the March dismissal, he stood in front of numerous cameras… in the courthouse lobby speaking about the case.”
“[T]hese are not the actions of a person seeking simply to maintain his privacy or simply to be let alone,” he added.
The files were originally sealed under an Illinois law that allows the documents of dismissed cases to remain sealed. The media organizations argue that the national news coverage of Smollett’s case gives the public a right to view those documents. Smollett’s lawyers argue that he should not be treated any differently than anyone else just because his case gained publicity. The judge ruled against Smollett.
Smollett claimed he was doused with a bleach-like substance while out walking in Chicago. He said two attackers came armed with a noose and spewed racist and homophobic slurs at him, declaring that it was “MAGA country.” After launching an investigation, Chicago Police accused Smollett of paying the Osundairo brothers to stage a hate crime.
Smollett Batch 1 by on Scribd
Smollett Batch 2 by on Scribd
Smollett Batch 3 by on Scribd
[Image via Chicago PD]
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