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Jussie Smollett is now officially in the crosshairs of law enforcement, because Chicago PD said he's now "officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation ... for filing a false police report." The cops say detectives are currently presenting evidence to a Cook County Grand Jury. If Smollett is charged the felony carries a maximum 3-year prison sentence. We're told the 2 brothers are at the courthouse now and are expected to testify ... most probably today.

Empire star Jussie Smollett has furiously denied paying two Nigerian brothers $3,500 to attack him and says he is 'angered and devastated' after investigators in Chicago claimed he orchestrated his own assault. Smollett’s attorneys, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, told Entertainment Weekly: 'As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with. 'He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kamala Harris’ effort to make lynching a federal crime received new life Thursday when the Senate unanimously passed her bill to outlaw it. The bill, which is co-authored by the two other African Americans in the Senate, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, unanimously passed the Senate late last year. But the House did not take it up before the congressional session ended, and the bill died. The Senate passed Harris’ legislation unanimously again Thursday. With Democrats now in control of the House, it stands a strong chance of making...

“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett issued a statement Saturday denying that he orchestrated his Jan. 29 assault, and saying he is “angered” and “devastated” by recent developments in the case. Chicago police want to interview Smollett, after learning new evidence from two Nigerian brothers who were released on Friday night. Local media outlets have reported that the brothers admitted to police that Smollett paid them to carry out the attack.

BREAKING NEWS. Fox 32 reporter Rafer Weigel said Saturday afternoon that Chicago police sources confirmed detectives were able to show that the Nigerian brothers who were “persons of interest” and questioned by police, bought the rope found around Jussie Smollett’s neck at Ace hardware. Jussie Smollett alleged two white Trump supporters violently attacked him at 2 AM in the streets of Chicago when he was walking home from Subway with a sandwich in his hand. Smollett told police the attackers were white and hurled homophobic and racial slurs at him while they beat him, poured bleach on him then put...

Chicago police late Friday released two Lakeview men who had been questioned for two days as “potential persons of interest” and, later, “potential suspects” in the alleged hate crime attack of Empire TV star Jussie Smollett early on Jan. 29 in Streeterville. “Due to new evidence as a result of today's interrogations” Abimbola "Abel" Osundairo and his brother Olabinjo "Ola" Osundairo were released, said Anthony Guglielmi, the top spokesperson for Chicago police. “Detectives have additional investigative work to complete.” The Osundiros are no longer considered suspects by investigators, whose full attention is now focused squarely on Smollett, according to well-established...

The identities of two brothers connected to an investigation into the alleged attack on Empire actor Jussie Smollett were revealed Friday. The two actors are named Abimbola “Abel” and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo and hail from Nigeria, according to the Daily Mail. On Wednesday, the pair were arrested by Chicago Police officers at O’Hare Airport upon arriving back to the U.S. from a trip to visit family in Nigeria and taken in for questioning.