In the past hour, CWBChicago obtained the arrest record of Jussie Smollett. For the first time, we are seeing a lot of the evidence we’ve only heard hearsay about to this point, including testimony from the Osundairo brothers and physical evidence. This comes on the heels of it becoming public that Smollett essentially mailed in his “community service” at Jesse Jackson’s front group.
Here are the latest details.
EXCLUSIVE: Complete @Chicago_Police investigative file of @jussiesmollett case is now posted. Please credit @CWBChicago for our work.
LINK: https://t.co/ZyvJwCqIKw pic.twitter.com/6He2Ncwf1V
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) March 27, 2019
As requested, credit to CWBChicago for getting these documents. Here’s the link to their full report. There you can download the entirety of the files. There’s a lot to sift through.
So there really was a hot sauce bottle of bleach.https://t.co/dZpXz8nFit pic.twitter.com/cCUk3Rpitd
— jerylbier (@JerylBier) March 27, 2019
Both files show a request to "reclassify" the Jussie Smollett incident from "aggravated battery" to a peace violation (false report), based on indications as early as January 31(?). Also note, FBI was involved and requested results of a CPD search executed on Smollett's iCloud. https://t.co/DZvL4qK7Ea
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) March 27, 2019
So the Chicago PD were on to Smollet’s scheme very early.
There will be a lot more reaction to this coming, as it exposes much of the evidence that Smollett sought to keep under wraps via the sealing of his case.
As a former ADA myself, I was dumbfounded that prosecutors thought they could move forward with this scheme without the police department's consent. They had to know this was going to happen.
— Matt Rippin (@MattRippin) March 27, 2019
I suspect this is just the beginning. You will almost certainly see a barrage of leaks coming unless Smollett is charged federally. There are a lot of very angry, and justifiably so, members of the Chicago PD who do not want to take this corruption lying down.
To be clear, this was not a leak, but a response to a FOIA request. Whether that was supposed to happen given Smollett’s record was expunged and the case sealed, I’m not sure. The fact that the Chicago PD responded so quickly and at this critical point in time does point to the fact that they wanted this out though.
As we learn more, we’ll keep you updated.
UPDATE:
The judge has stepped in and made sure the Chicago PD can not release anything else. This was expected and still makes no legal sense. There is no reason for this case to be sealed like he’s a juvenile.
According to CPD, their dept. and the City of Chicago viewed the original sealing order issued during yesterday’s hearing as not applying to police and city records. The revised order is broader and covers police and city records, @JoshMargolin reports for @ABC.
— Stephanie Wash (@WashNews) March 27, 2019
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