Chicago police have released body-camera footage of Jussie Smollett meeting with officers with a noose around his neck on the night he reported a racist and homophobic attack.
In the video obtained by Chicago’s ABC7, uniformed officers are brought up to Smollett’s apartment, on the January night of the incident, by the actor’s manager. They briefly speak before Smollett asks them to turn off their body cameras. You can watch the video above.
The clip is among more than 70 hours of footage connected to the investigation released by police on Monday.
Though Smollett’s face is blurred in the clip, it shows the actor with a noose around his neck, explaining that his attackers placed it there. The officers ask him if he’d like to remove it and he does, then says he doesn’t want to be recorded.
But police soon called Smollett’s account into question. Following an investigation, the “Empire” star was charged on 16 counts after prosecutors said Smollett himself paid two men to stage the attack.
Smollett has consistently denied the allegations, and all the charges were later dropped.
Late last week, a Cook County judge ruled that a special prosecutor be appointed to look into State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the investigation.