The phone records Jussie Smollett provided to cops to corroborate his version of his alleged attack are “limited and redacted” and insufficient for a criminal investigation, the Chicago Police Department said Tuesday.
Smollett turned over the records 13 days after his alleged assault — following a report in The Post that he was holding them back — but they were a “heavily redacted” PDF of his call log from within an hour of the attack at 11:28 PST Monday, a spokesperson for the “Empire” star and Chicago police said.
“We need something a little more concrete and direct if we’re going to be able to say for a fact the conversation occurred,” Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told The Post in reference to a conversation Smollett said he had with his manager at the time of the attack.
“We don’t believe this is the case at all, but when anyone hands over a redacted and limited record like a PDF of a phone bill, for example, those records could be manipulated. We don’t believe they are, but we have to be able to hold up to the standards of a criminal court … [the records] don’t meet the burden for a criminal investigation.”
Chris Bastardi, a spokesperson for Jussie Smollett, said the redacted information “was intended to protect the privacy of personal contacts or high-profile individuals not relevant to the attack.”
“Chicago Police have not told us that they are rejecting any records, nor have they expressed concerns about the records to us,” Bastardi went on.
Late Tuesday morning, Guglielmi was unable to confirm if detectives had told Smollett’s team the records were insufficient.
Smollett told police he was on the phone with his manager, Brandon Z. Moore, during the alleged racist and homophobic attack he endured on Jan. 29. Smollett said he was called “f—-t” and “n—-r” and heard the words “MAGA country,” a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”
Moore said he overheard those remarks during the phone call and police want the phone records to corroborate the men’s accounts of what happened.
“We obviously can’t use redacted records, we have to have the whole record to show it wasn’t tampered with at all,” Guglielmi said.
Still, Guglielmi said the records Smollett provided are indicative of his willingness to cooperate and the department will be following up with Smollett’s team for additional data.
“He committed early on to getting those records and he followed through with that,” Guglielmi said.
“He’s very much still considered a victim and the investigation continues.”