Jussie Smollett

Police executed a no-knock warrant at the home of 2 persons of interest in the Jussie Smollett attack case. According to CWBChicago.com, police served the no-knock warrant at a home in Wrigleyville.

Among the items seized during the raid were a red hat, 4 bottles of bleach, a pair of Nike sneakers, 2 laptops, 1 iPad and tablet, and a receipt for a clothesline rope.

Update: Police also seized a magazine, postage stamps, and handwriting samples – possibly to compare to a threatening letter Smollett received at the FOX TV studio in Chicago a week prior to the alleged hate attack on Smollett.

Jussie Smollett
 

The Black male suspects, who are brothers, were arrested Wednesday night at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, according to CWBChicago.

The 2 suspects worked as extras on the Empire TV show, according to CWBChicago.com.

After kicking in the door to their home, police reportedly asked the family if the brothers were friends with Smollett, who stars in the FOX TV musical about a Black record company dynasty based in Chicago.

According to Charlie De Mar, a reporter for CBS Chicago, the family told police the brothers flew to Nigeria on the day of the alleged attack.

According to TMZ, police identified the two suspects through “rideshare and/or taxicab records”.

ABC7 reporter Rob Elgas tweeted: “Multiple sources tell @ABC7Chicago Eyewitness News Jussie Smollett and the 2 men who are being questioned by police staged the attack – allegedly because his character was being written out of the show Empire.”

Smollett has insisted all along that he was attacked by 2 Trump supporters who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him. His manager, Brandon Z. Moore, told police he was on the phone with Smollett during the attack and heard the attackers yell “This is MAGA country!”

According to CWBChicago.com, Chicago police acquired Smollett’s full phone records through a subpoena to his wireless provider. They compared the phone records with the redacted records Smollett gave them.

CWBChicago tweeted: “Source states phone records provided by Smollett were a spreadsheet. He downloaded his phone activity into a spreadsheet and then deleted certain phone calls. “He did the [detectives’] job for them because then they only had to focus on the numbers he deleted.”

CWBChicago posted a tip they received last week:

“They’ve identified the two Black friends of his (through facial recognition) who are from Wrigleyville and took Lyft to the scene. Clothesline from Ace Hardware. Mayor wants to release info now, cod wants two friends to confess first after they have tower dump.

The friends “attacked” JS as planned and then went back to Wrigleyville. They are the two on video.”

Smollett reportedly hired Sunshine Sachs public relations firm – the same PR firm that represented Harvey Weinstein after he was accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of Hollywood starlets.