Newly released investigative files from the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax show that the Empire star used Venmo to pay his accomplices for pot, ecstasy, and cocaine. The documents, which were made public on Thursday, a week after a Cook County Circuit Court judge ordered their release, reveal in detail how the Osundairo brothers described the staged attack.
The documents also show that police found inconsistencies between what Smollett told them right after the alleged attack and what he later claimed during his interview on Good Morning America.
And in a brand new development, Chicago police described in one document that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office informed them on February 28, almost a month before the charges against Smollett were dropped, that they would be settle with Smollett, and have him pay $10 thousand in restitution to the city of Chicago, as well as do “community service.” That is exactly how it played out.
According to Fox 32 Chicago, Judge Steven Watkins said in his order last week that Smollett’s actions both before and after his case was dismissed “did not appear to be those of someone seeking to maintain his privacy.”
Smollett’s lawyers had argued that since the charges were dropped, the actor had “the right to be left alone.”
Watkins’ decision, which followed requests by FOX 32 and other media organizations to make the file public, said there were good arguments for keeping the file sealed but that Smollett forfeited his right to protect his privacy by talking to the media.
The actor had been charged with 16 counts alleging he lied to police when telling them that two masked men beat him in January in downtown Chicago, shouted slurs at him, doused him with a chemical substance and looped a rope around his neck. Police still insist Smollett, who is black and gay, staged the attack because he was unhappy with his salary on the Fox TV show and wanted publicity.
CWB Chicago tweeted out some key excerpts from the document dump.
The sensational case, which concluded on March 26 when prosecutors dismissed all charges, attracted a massive amount of media attention. One document describes investigators having to deal with “an extremely large media presence,” with some reporters even posing as “homeless persons.”
Rrrrrreally, guys? pic.twitter.com/XFRqObSbta
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) May 30, 2019
Chicago police obtained text records revealing that on occasion, Smollett paid one or the other of the Osundairo brothers via Venmo for “weed” (cannabis), “Molly” (ecstasy), and “Witney” (cocaine).
According to CPD, the text messages and bank records showed how Smollett had a habit of paying the Osundairo brothers for something illicit while claiming payment was for something else, like “training.”
CPD says text from @JussieSmollett to an Osundairo brother: “Nigga , you still got a molly connect?” Molly is slang for the drug ecstasy. pic.twitter.com/JzdDNcsEvR
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) May 30, 2019
Another file features the Osundairo brothers’ somewhat comical description of the staged hate crime.
The brothers performed their lines as rehearsed: “Are you that Empire faggot?” and “Empire n*gger.” To which the shocked and dismayed Smollett emoted, “WHAT DID You SAY?!” Then they tussled in the snow, with the O-bros careful to “pull their punches” so as not to actually hurt Smollett. One of the brothers rubbed his knuckle on Smollett’s face in an attempt to bruise him, but again, not to hurt him “too badly.”
When cars started going by, they tried to finish up their little street drama “as quick as possible.”
These guys were like The Three Stooges:
Osundairo brother describes being hurried during staged attack of @JussieSmollett because cars were passing by. pic.twitter.com/7Khm3TtWSS
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) May 30, 2019
CPD interviewed the cab drivers who took the Osundairo brothers to and from the staged attack area. Both cabbies thought they were going to get mugged.
A tale of two taxis:
• Cabbie who drove O brothers to attack received $20 for a $9.75 fare
• Cabbie who drove them back to Lakeview received $20 for a $19 ride
Both cabbies thought O brothers might rob them. pic.twitter.com/jaCPPmjlp7— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) May 30, 2019
According to CWB Chicago, probably the most significant revelation found in the hundreds of pages of documents is a detective’s report that describes how a Cook County prosecutor predicted how the case would be resolved—a month before it happened.
“Once Smollet was indicted by the Grand Jury on February 28, 2019, CPD was informed by the [Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office] that they could no longer investigate” the fake hate crime case, a detective wrote in a report that closed out the case on Mar. 28th.
The detective the prosecutor who handled the Smollet case, Risa Lanier, told him on the day that a grand jury indicted Smollett that her office would need all evidence by Mar. 11th.
Yet, in the same meeting, “Lanier informed detectives that she felt the case would be settled with Smollett paying the city of Chicago $10,000 in restitution and doing community service.”
Major development in @JussieSmollett case: CPD detectives say they were told a month before case was dropped that the charges would be resolved with Smollett forfeiting $10K bail to the city and “community service.” That’s exactly what happend. pic.twitter.com/rBnz1PSYtm
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) May 30, 2019
As it turned out, no one from the State’s Attorney’s Office ever asked for the case evidence. And, weeks later, on Mar. 26th, Lanier and Smollett’s attorneys requested an emergency court hearing in which sixteen felony counts of false report were dropped against the actor without any of the usual diversionary programs or alternative prosecution plans being put into place.
Instead, precisely as Lanier had predicted weeks earlier, Smollett forfeited his $10,000 bail bond to the city. And, prosecutors claimed, the actor performed “community service” in two preceding days by helping at the Rainbow PUSH gift shop. (Rainbow PUSH would later dispute that Smollett’s work was “community service.”)
The city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Smollett in April after Smollett refused a demand to reimburse Chicago $130,106 for overtime incurred while the police investigated the alleged hate crime.
The city is reportedly seeking over $390,000 plus “further relief as this Court deems just and equitable,” as well as any legal bills Chicago incurs in suing him.
Another batch of police records is expected to be released next week. About 70 hours of surveillance videos that detectives collected during their investigation are also forthcoming.
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