LIAR
Chicago cops call Jussie Smollett a
CHICAGO — “Empire” star Jussie Smollett was charged Wednesday night with lying to cops when he claimed to be the victim of a racist and homophobic attack — and authorities want him to surrender, police said.
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Smollett was charged with filing a false police report, a felony, after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved the criminal complaint. Cops were seeking to have Smollett turn himself in as soon as possible, Gugliemi said.
“We’re trying to get in touch with his lawyers,” he told The Post.
Under Illinois law, Smollett, 36, could face up to three years in prison if convicted.
The latest development came hours after Smollett was formally classified as a suspect, and followed a stream of reports that increasingly cast doubt on his story — including one that two brothers had told police that Smollett had paid them $3,500 to stage the Jan. 29 incident.
The brothers, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo were escorted into the grand-jury offices at Chicago’s Leighton Criminal Court Building about 30 minutes before Smollett was formally named a suspect.
They were surrounded by about a half-dozen people in civilian clothing as they walked into the secure area on the fourth floor at about 3:45 p.m.
A little more than two hours later, 16 members of the grand jury were escorted out of the area and into two elevators while reporters were kept at bay.
The brothers left the building minutes later. Their lawyer, Glo- ria Schmidt, told reporters, “Jussie’s conscience is probably not letting him sleep right now.’’
On Tuesday, the siblings were about to testify before the panel when a last-minute Hail Mary call to the prosecution from Smollett’s lawyers postponed their appearances, according to the local CBS News affiliate.
The defense claimed it might have new evidence in the case, CBS 2 then reported Wednesday.
Lawyers for Smollett said their client “enjoys the presumption of innocence.”
The attorneys, Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson, said they “intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.”
Smollett and his lawyers have repeatedly stood by his claims, including a statement Saturday that called him “a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation.”
Smollett, who is black and gay, says he was attacked at around 2 a.m. near his apartment building in Chicago’s swank Streeterville neighborhood by two men who called him “Empire fa---t n----r,” doused him with a liquid believed to be bleach and looped a rope around his neck.
He also told detectives that the men shouted, “MAGA country,” an apparent reference to Presi-
dent Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Cops found surveillance video of two men walking together near where Smollett claimed he was attacked, and the Osundairo brothers were arrested on Feb. 13. They were released without charges two days later.
The bodybuilders “have a relationship” with Smollett, police have said, and their lawyer, Schmidt, has described them as gym buddies of his who’ve also worked on “Empire.”
Reports have said that they told cops Smollett paid them $3,500 up front to stage the incident — with the promise of $500 more afterward — and that he orchestrated the hoax because a threatening letter he received through via mail a week earlier didn’t get enough attention.
The letter — which said, “You will die black f-g” and showed a crudely drawn stick figure hanging from a tree — arrived Jan. 22 at the Cinespace Chicago Film Studios where “Empire” is shot. The envelope was addressed to Smollett and had “MAGA” in the upper left corner.
The envelope also contained a powdery white substance that was determined to be acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.
That case was turned over to the FBI, and a report Tuesday said the feds were investigating whether Smollett was behind the letter, too.
Reports have said he could faces charges of mail fraud or mailing threatening communications.
Lying to the FBI is also a crime, but it’s unclear if agents ever interviewed Smollett.
Speculation has swirled that Smollett concocted the scheme because he feared he was going to be written out of “Empire,” which broadcaster Fox has repeatedly denied.
Hours before Smollett was officially named a suspect Wednesday, 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Entertainment doubled down on their support of him, saying he “continues to be a consummate professional on set, and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show.”
The statement did not address reports Tuesday that Smollett’s role was being reduced amid the ongoing controversy.
Meanwhile, it surfaced that in September 2007, Smollett pleaded no contest to providing false information to Los Angeles cops following a traffic stop for suspected drunken driving.
Court papers say he identified himself as his brother, Jake Smollett, when he was busted on July 19, 2007.
Under terms of a plea bargain that also covered charges of driving under the influence and driving without a license, Smollett was sentenced to two years’ probation.
He was given the choice of paying a fine or serving jail time, but there are no records that say which option he picked, a spokesman for the LA city attorney said.