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Jussie Smollett airtime on Empire 'cut' amid questions over assault case

Actor's case is set to go before a grand jury amid conflicting reports about what took place during the alleged attack

Roisin O'Connor
Tuesday 19 February 2019 15:55 GMT
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Jussie Smollett speaks to Good Morning America in first TV interview since attack

Jussie Smollett's screentime on Empire has reportedly been cut amid an ongoing case where the actor claims to have been the victim of a homophobic and racially motivated attack in Chicago.

Following reports that the case is set to go before a grand jury, Smollett's screentime has apparently been cut down from nine scenes to four, while a musical number will no longer feature.

According to TMZ, writers on Empire are "busy making edits" and the show's script has undergone "multiple revisions".

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that he was attacked by two men who poured bleach on him and put a rope around his neck while shouting racial and homophobic slurs at him.

After scouring hundreds of hours of surveillance footage, police tracked down two brothers who are said to be cooperating with officials, with the case then taking "a new direction".

A law enforcement source close to the investigation told Deadline: "The new direction of the investigation is now based on the premnise that Mr Smollett was an active participant in the incident."

The two men, who are brothers, told officials that Smollett paid them to orchestrate the attack before they briefly fled to Nigeria afterwards.

"We are not racist," they told CBS. "We are not homophobic and we are not anti-Trump. We were born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens."

Smollett's attorneys denied such claims, saying: "Nothign is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."

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