CHICAGO _ Chicago police on Wednesday released the investigative file involving the alleged hate crime hoax by "Empire" star Jussie Smollett.
The release of the documents comes a day after Cook County prosecutors abruptly dropped a 16-count indictment against Smollett, saying they'd cut a deal with the actor to perform two days of community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the city of Chicago.
The unusual move allowed Smollett's attorneys to get his criminal case immediately sealed, caught Chicago police brass by surprise and brought swift condemnation from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who called it a "whitewash of justice."
Meanwhile, State's Attorney Kim Foxx spoke about the case Wednesday at an event at local radio station WBEZ, noting that she did not make the decision to drop charges but said prosecutors have made similar arrangements for defendants with low-level felonies.
"There's some people who were never going to be satisfied unless Mr. Smollett spent many nights in prison," Foxx said, according to a tweet from Block Club Chicago journalist Kelly Bauer. "Right now there's a lot of emotion, and I wholeheartedly believe in our line of work we cannot be driven by emotion. We have to be driven by facts."
Foxx recused herself from the case last month after revealing she had contact with Smollett's representatives early on in the investigation. She declined to provide details at the time. Communications later released to the Chicago Tribune, however, showed Foxx had asked police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to turn over the investigation to the FBI after she was approached by a politically connected lawyer about the case.
The 61-page police file _ which was redacted to remove witness names and other personal information _ lays out in detail the investigative steps taken by a team of detectives to unravel what happened to Smollett on the frigid January night in downtown Chicago when he claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.
While the detective files cover much of what was already publicly known about the investigation, they shed light on the moves that police and prosecutors made behind the scenes to interview witnesses in front of a grand jury amid the media frenzy over the case.
Shortly before Smollett was charged in February, detectives arranged to have two brothers who had allegedly been hired to attack the actor appear before the grand jury at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
With reporters staking out the grand jury room on the building's fourth floor, detectives arranged to meet the brothers and their lawyer at a parking lot and then drive them to the courthouse a few miles away, the records show.
The detective brought them into the courthouse through a secured rear entrance near the Cook County Jail to avoid detection by reporters, according to the detective's supplemental report.
Smollett, who is African-American and openly gay, has said he was walking from a Subway sandwich shop to his apartment in the Streeterville neighborhood Jan. 29 when two men walked up, yelled racial and homophobic slurs, hit him and wrapped a noose around his neck. Smollett said they also yelled "This is MAGA country," in a reference to President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan.
Smollett's allegations made worldwide headlines, but questions arose about his story.
Police initially treated the incident as a hate crime, but their focus turned to Smollett after the two brothers who were alleged to have been his attackers told police that Smollett had paid them $3,500 to stage the attack, with a promise of an additional $500 later.
Police pieced together much of their evidence by reviewing footage from about 55 police and private surveillance cameras showing the brothers' movements before and after the attack.
