Jussie Smollett Turns Over Limited, Redacted Phone Records Police Say Aren’t Anywhere Near Enough
Jussie Smollett and his manager have reportedly released a limited set of heavily-redacted phone records to Chicago police Monday night in response to investigators’ requests to inspect his phone as part of an ongoing investigation into the “Empire” star’s claims that he was attacked on the morning of January 29th.
Law enforcement officials say that the records do not meet the burden of proof for a criminal investigation and that “Detectives may be following up with him (Smollett) to request additional data to corroborate the investigative timeline.”
MORE: Chicago police spokesman says "Detectives may be following up with him (Smollett) to request additional data to corroborate the investigative timeline."
— Rob Elgas (@RobElgasABC7) February 12, 2019
The phone records could be of use to verify a call between Smollett and his manager that allegedly took place during the attack. Smollett has refused to turn over his phone so that investigators could pull the data necessary to substantiate at least some of his claims. Police described Smollett’s ‘phone records’ as a heavily redacted document and his manager’s ‘evidence’ as a screenshot of phone calls that provide limited information to investigators.
Smollett filed a police report claiming that two men attacked him during his return from a 2:00 AM food run to Subway. The report alleges that two white men beat Smollett, poured bleach on him and placed a noose around his neck all while yelling “This is MAGA country.” Police have been unable to confirm any of the information in the report despite a multitude of security cameras in the area of the attack and many in the department doubt Smollett’s claims.
