How 'Empire' star Jussie Smollett went from alleged hate crime victim to suspect

• "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett was arrested by Chicago police early Thursday, the department said.
• Prosecutors are charging Smollett with disorderly conduct and filing a false police report in connection with his allegations that he was targeted in a hate-crime attack.
• Smollett alleged last month that two men assaulted him and shouted racist and homophobic slurs.
• But skepticism of his allegations have mounted in recent weeks, and detectives pivoted to focus on whether Smollet himself staged the attack.

In recent weeks, a startling allegation of a violent hate crime against a star of the hit show "Empire" has evolved into a police investigation into whether the actor staged the attack against himself.

Chicago police arrested Jussie Smollett, 36, on Thursday. Prosecutors are charging him with disorderly conduct and filing a false police report, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. 

Smollett alleged that two men assaulted him in late January, shouting racist and homophobic slurs and tying a rope around his neck. Smollett is black and gay, and plays an LGBT character on the Fox series.

But cracks in the story quickly emerged, and investigators began looking into whether Smollett paid off two men to assault him in an elaborate hoax.

Here's what has happened so far in the rapidly moving case.

January 22: An anonymous letter reportedly arrives at the "Empire" set, addressed to Smollett and using letters clipped from magazines to spell out, "You will die black f-g." The letter lists "MAGA" as the return address.

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THE LETTER: “When the letter didn’t get enough attention, he concocted the staged attack” - CPD sources.

Jussie Smollett received a hate letter Jan. 22. It's that letter, the mail angle, that brought in the FBI. "That makes any potential case a Federal one, if they want it."pic.twitter.com/dTk2ECBvhU

January 29: Smollett's manager calls Chicago police at 2:42 a.m. to report an attack on Smollett that they said occurred roughly 40 minutes earlier.

When officers arrive at Smollett's apartment, they find him with a "thin, light rope" still around his neck. Smollett tells the officers the men attacked him as he was walking back to an apartment from a Subway restaurant.

He alleges they yelled racist slurs, hit him in the face, poured an unknown chemical substance on him, and tied the rope around his neck.

January 29: Later that morning in a follow-up interview, Smollett told officers the men also yelled "This is MAGA country" after the attack. Chicago police said they are investigating the attack as a hate crime, and that Smollett is "fully cooperating."

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Statement on #ChicagoPolice hate crime investigation. We are taking these allegations very seriously and encourage anyone with information to report anonymously to https://t.co/yYAqzcVIfupic.twitter.com/DxipALHXaz

Source: The Chicago Sun-Times