Jussie Smollett has turned over his phone records to the Chicago police to help them with their investigation into the timeline of his alleged attack. But police say the records he turned over are incomplete and redacted.
The 35-year-old openly homosexual actor was allegedly assaulted outside his friend’s luxury high rise condominium on Jan. 29. He claims he was beaten by two masked men, who allegedly poured a chemical substance over him and tied a noose around his neck while yelling racial and homophobic slurs.
Police launched an intense investigation into the crime, assigning over a dozen investigators to work the alleged hate crime. But investigators publicly revealed that Jussie refused to hand over his phone records to help them with the timeline of his allegations.
On Monday, a representative for the Chicago P.D. revealed that they finally received the phone records that they requested 2 weeks ago.
“Chicago Police received limited and redacted phone records from the victim,” the Chicago PD said in a statement on Monday. “These records will be analyzed by detectives and we will be in contact with the victim should additional information be needed.”
According to The Wrap, spokesman Howard Ludwig said, “Usually when we ask people to hand over their records, they just hand over their phone.”
The police had asked for the Empire star’s phone records so they could confirm his claims that he had been on the phone with his manager Brandon Z. Moore when he was attacked.
“CPD has no reason to doubt these claims. Detectives, however, were not able to independently verify the statements as cell phone records were not provided to investigators when asked. Therefore we are not able to confirm this,” they told The Wrap late January.
Investigators plan to follow up with Smollett to ask for more phone records.
Police Department representatives also revealed on Monday that two reporters with the New York Post found an empty Tabasco sauce bottle containing residue that smelled like bleach near where Jussie said he was attacked. But it is not clear if the bottle is related to the incident as it wasn’t found during earlier searches by police.
Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
