Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson said Smollett had taken advantage of the pain and anger of racism, draining resources that could have been used to investigate other crimes for which people were actually suffering.
Police say the staged assault was carried out by two brothers to whom the actor had paid $3,500 and that they have a copy of the check Smollett used to pay them. Also recovered, they said, were phone records that showed Smollett speaking to the brothers an hour before Smollett said the incident took place, and an hour after that time.
Johnson declined to indicate why investigators now believe Smollett had also played the chief role in the mailing of a threatening letter he received. The letter, which arrived a week before the reported assault, contained a harmless white powder and a sketch of what appeared to be a man being hanged.
The actor, who surrendered to authorities Thursday, has maintained he has not done anything wrong.
Fox, the network that airs “Empire,” released a statement Thursday saying it was evaluating the situation and the network’s options.
Smollett’s salary is not publicly known, but it was not immediately apparent that he has had any clashes with executives of Fox.
Smollett, who is black and openly gay, had told police that at roughly 2 a.m. Jan. 29, two masked men attacked him in downtown Chicago. He said his assailants directed homophobic and racial slurs at him, put a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him.
The investigators approached the case as a possible hate crime but had difficulty finding evidence to match Smollett’s account.
Police said they had found the brothers using surveillance footage that showed them taking a cab from the area of the reported assault. Investigators tracked the cab, interviewed the driver, and identified the passengers as Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, two brothers and associates of Smollett’s.
One had worked as an extra on “Empire” and Smollett later acknowledged he had paid money to have one of them train him for a music video.
The men acknowledged being paid to participate in the reported assault, the investigators said.
After an interview with the brothers, detectives released them without charges. Asked about that decision Thursday, Johnson said: “Mr. Smollett is the one who orchestrated this crime. They became cooperating witnesses.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.