Judge orders Google to turn over Jussie Smollet's data as part of special prosecutor probe

by Megan Crepeau and Jeremy Gorner for Chicago Tribune

A Cook County judge has ordered Google to turn over Jussie Smollett’s emails, photos, location data and private messages for an entire year as part of the special prosecutor’s investigation into the purported attack on the actor. 

Two sweeping search warrants, obtained by the Chicago Tribune, provide the first public glimpse at the direction of the probe by special prosecutor Dan Webb more than four months into the investigation.

The warrants, filed last month in Circuit Court, sought a trove of documentation from Smollett and his manager’s Google accounts — not just emails but also drafted and deleted messages; any files in their Google Drive cloud storage services; any Google Voice texts, calls and contacts; search and web browsing history; and location data.

Investigators sought a full year’s data — from November 2018 to November 2019 — even though the key events in the controversy took place between late January and late March 2019. Authorities could be looking for any incriminating remarks from Smollett or his manager, especially in the months after State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office abruptly dismissed disorderly conduct charges against the then-"Empire" actor just weeks after his indictment. Smollett, who is African American and openly gay, has declared the dismissal a vindication of his claims that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.

The mysterious reversal by Foxx’s office — coming after Foxx herself stepped aside from overseeing the prosecution — sparked a public outcry that ultimately led Judge Michael Toomin to appoint Webb as special prosecutor in late August.

Toomin signed off on the search warrants on Dec. 6, the records show. In doing so, the judge ordered Google and its “representatives, agents and employees” not to disclose his order to turn over the records, saying to do so “may jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation.”

It was unclear from the file if Google has handed over the data on Smollett and his manager. A Google spokesman said he could not comment on specific requests for records from law enforcement.

Toomin gave Webb a broad mandate to investigate all aspects of the case — not only its initial handling by Foxx’s office but also whether to criminally charge Smollett again.

The search warrants make clear that Chicago police are assisting in Webb’s investigation.

Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago police spokesman, confirmed that the department is working with the special prosecutor, conducting “follow-ups” on its initial investigation. But Guglielmi declined further comment, referring inquiries to Webb’s team.

Webb declined to comment on the search warrants or his broader investigation. Smollett’s attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment. 

Smollett reported that two men attacked him near his high-rise apartment in the Streeterville neighborhood on a frigid night last Jan. 29, slipping a noose around his neck and shouting racist and homophobic slurs.

Smollett’s manager — whose Google account information has also been ordered turned over — called 911 to report the attack and met responding officers in the lobby of Smollett’s building. He can be seen on body camera footage reaching toward Smollett to grab the noose around his neck with disdain. “The reason I’m calling (police) is because of this s--- ,” he said.

But Smollett eventually turned from victim to suspect after an intense investigation by Chicago police detectives who used two brothers’ cellphone records, internet search history and text messages to corroborate their story that the actor paid them $3,500 to stage the attack.

Prosecutors alleged that Smollett staged the attack because he was unhappy with the “Empire” studio’s response to a threatening letter he received at work a week earlier. Chicago police took it a step further, accusing Smollett of faking the letter as well.

But just a few weeks after indicting Smollett on 16 counts of disorderly conduct, Foxx’s office made the stunning announcement that all the charges had been dropped with little explanation at an unannounced court hearing.

Smollett’s attorneys have painted the brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who are of Nigerian descent, as homophobic liars who carried out a real attack on Smollett with the help of an as-yet unidentified white co-conspirator. They have long alleged that the brothers’ attorney fed them a fabricated story to tell cops in order to avoid charges.

The whole episode has been costly for Smollett. He now faces a lawsuit from the city of Chicago seeking to recoup $130,000 in police overtime costs for investigating the incident, and the Osundairos have sued Smollett’s attorneys for defamation. Smollett, who reportedly won’t return to his role for the final season of the Fox series “Empire,” filed a counterclaim against the city, saying he was the victim of a malicious prosecution that caused humiliation and extreme distress. (continued)