Will we ever see the end of the Jussie Smollet case? Technically, we still don’t know if the now former Empire actor was telling the truth when he said he was attacked by Trump supporters all the way back in late January. This probably won’t help you make your mind up either: The Chicago Police Department made public some 70 hours of video footage related to the Smollett case, including police body cam footage from after the alleged incident.
“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
CBS Chicago obtained the latter footage, which runs about two minutes and shows police entering Smollett’s Chicago apartment. It shows the actor, his face blurred, standing in his kitchen in a sweater, the now famous white noose around his neck. Officers ask if Smollett wants to take it off, to which he replies, “Yeah, I do. I just wanted you all to see it.”
Smollett then says to the officers, “There’s bleach on me…They poured bleach on me,” before removing the noose. The video ends with a male voice asking the officers to turn off their body cam, which they do.
The last we heard from Smollett, word was Chicago PD was considering re-charging him for the crime of reporting a false police report. Charges against Smollett were dropped in March, but some in the organization have publicly expressed doubt that Smollett was attacked at all, suggesting he staged the incident.
There have been untold twists in the story, and while certain Empire cast members have stuck by him, the show’s honcho Lee Daniels recently turned his back, announcing he would not return for the show’s next and final season.
(Via CBS Chicago and Entertainment Weekly)
