Chicago police released body camera footage on Monday that showed Jussie Smollett with a white rope tied in a noose around his neck the night he reported he was attacked by two men.
The body camera video is part of over 70 hours of video Chicago police released to the media.
The gay black actor claimed in January that he’d been the victim of a hate-fueled attack, but police in February claimed that Smollett had staged it.
Smollett, 36, was indicted on 16 felony counts but prosecutors unexpectedly dropped all charges. Prosecutors said Smollett had forfeited his $10,000 bail money and done community service.
The body camera video from January begins with a man who identified himself as Smollett’s creative director leading officers to the “Empire” star’s apartment.
“He doesn’t want that to be a big deal, you understand what I’m saying?” the man says in the video. “I just feel like he should report this. I know he’s been getting some hate mail, he never showed it to me.”
As officers enter Smollett’s apartment, he’s seen wearing a sweater with a white rope tied in a noose around his neck.
“Do you want to take it off or anything?” one of the officers ask.
“Yeah, I do, I just wanted y’all to see (inaudible),” Smollett says in the video before removing the rope. “They poured some bleach on me.”
“You’re filming this right?” the man says. The officers say yes.
“I don’t want to be filmed,” Smollett says. The man asks the officers to turn off their camera.
Over 400 pages of search warrants and some text messages are part of the release. CNN is going through the video and documents
Developing story. More to come.
