Chicago prosecutors told police a deal with Jussie Smollett was probable about a month before all charges against him were formally dropped, according to documents found within hundreds of pages of investigative records released to the public by Chicago police Thursday.
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The docu-dump comes a week after a judge ordered records in Smollett’s case unsealed. According to the Chicago Tribune, one of the pieces of information provided is that a Cook County prosecutor named Risa Lanier told police “she believed the case would end with” Smollett “paying restitution and doing community service.”
And that’s exactly what happened about a month later, with Smollett forfeiting his $10,000 bond and doing some community service.
It makes curious all the brouhaha by law enforcement since then if they knew this was coming.
Among other revelations in the files:
According to E! News, Smollett initially told investigators looking into his claims of being the victim of a racist and homophobic attack that at least one of his attackers had been white:
Smollett had told police that one of his assailants was a white male who wore a black ski mask with an open eye area, and said he was able to see the color of the person’s skin through the open area of the mask, according to a police report. It also stated that he was unable to provide a description of his second attacker.
In a later interview with police, Smollett apparently described the one attacker as “pale.” And when responding to pushback from the cops about his description, Smollett disputed ever saying his attacker was white, stating, as E! News explains, that he
“assumed they were white due to the comments that were made” [during the reported attack] and reiterated that he was only able to see the area just above the bridge of the nose.
In addition, it appears Smollett never implicated brothers Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo and Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo, the two black men Chicago police initially charged with the attack before deciding it was all a hoax.
As E! News explains:
When shown photos of the brothers as suspects, he identified Olabinjo as his trainer, his friend and an extra on Empire. He also identified his brother but said he did not know his name. He said the two could not be his attackers, adding, “They are black as sin. We don’t have any issues. They are straight so we don’t have any problems with women or men. They did not owe me any money, I don’t owe them money. We have a good relationship.”
Prosecutors would eventually accuse Smollett of paying the Osundairo brothers to fake the attack, charging the actor with 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct.
Prosecutors would then abruptly drop all charges without an admission of guilt by Smollett, which drew harsh criticism by law enforcement officials and then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Welp. Maybe more explosive information will be revealed in the days to come. But for now, the data released thus far sure doesn’t look like the fire revelations some may have been hoping for.
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