The report of Mr. Smollett’s being attacked spread quickly and a national outpouring of support quickly followed. Multiple 2020 Democratic presidential candidates weighed in to condemn Mr. Smollett’s purported assailants, as did President Trump, who called the incident “horrible,” and several advocacy groups offered aid.
In the days after Mr. Smollett reported his attack, the police released a surveillance image of two men thought to be potential persons of interest. The actor would later say in an interview broadcast on “Good Morning America” that he was convinced that these two were the men that attacked him.
On Feb. 13, the police detained Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, two brothers and associates of Mr. Smollett’s, believing them to be the men in the images. Their home was raided by law enforcement. Through their lawyer, the brothers initially said they didn’t know why they were of interest to the police, but investigators changed their status from persons of interest to potential suspects publicly. But the story took another twist: The brothers told the police that they had been paid by Mr. Smollett to stage the attack, and detectives released them without charges.
Skepticism over the story existed from the beginning — particularly from conservative commentators who found Mr. Smollett’s story implausible — because of the lack of evidence. Outwardly, the police repeatedly said they were treating Mr. Smollett as a victim and that they had no reason to doubt his story. Mr. Smollett acknowledged the suspicion in some corners in his first public statement about the incident, which came on Feb. 1, when he said through his publicist: “I am working with authorities and have been 100 percent factual and consistent on every level. Despite my frustrations and deep concern with certain inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been spread, I still believe that justice will be served.”
In the “Good Morning America” interview, which was broadcast on Feb. 14, Mr. Smollett said to Robin Roberts, “It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me much more.”
Even so, the Chicago Police Department was still investigating the case as a possible hate crime until late last week, when, Superintendent Johnson said, the police began considering Mr. Smollett as possibly culpable. Mr. Smollett was charged on Wednesday.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/arts/television/jussie-smollett-arrest-salary-letter.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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