Democratic presidential candidates jockeying for position in 2020 had a lot to say when actor Jussie Smollett said he was attacked in Chicago by two white men who shouted racist and homophobic slurs as they beat him.
But they were silent on Saturday, when law enforcement sources said that Chicago Police believed “Empire” star Smollett, 36, who is gay, paid two black men to set up the assault. Police arrested the men, who are brothers from Nigeria, on Wednesday but released them Friday after discovering “new evidence.”
A Chicago police spokesman said: “We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation.” He added that police wanted to speak to Smollett again.
When news of the “attack” broke last month, Democratic presidential contenders clamored to denounce it as a horrific manifestation of racism and bigotry in America.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., called it a “modern-day lynching.”