The mystery behind “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s alleged attack deepened Thursday amid reports that cops are probing whether he staged the attack on himself because he was being written off the show.
Cops raided the home of two Nigerian nationals — extras on the show who are considered “persons of interest” — and took them into custody at O’Hare Airport on Wednesday, according to the Chicago’s ABC affiliate.
The station and a CBS affiliate both reported that cops suspect Smollett orchestrated the attack and enlisted the men’s help.
A spokesman for the Chicago Police cast doubt on that narrative.
“Media reports about the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives,” the spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said.
“We have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate,” he wrote, though the reports don’t specify the sources are law enforcement.
A relative of the Nigerian men told the network that several cops banged on the door last night and said they had a search warrant.
Among the items recovered from the home were bleach, shoes and electronics.
Police also questioned the star himself on Thursday after the actor appeared on “Good Morning America” to give his first detailed account of the alleged incident.
“He did answer routine follow-up questions from the police today and continues to be cooperative,” Smollett’s rep Pamela Sharp told The Post.
Both Sharp and Fox said that Smollett was not being written off the show.
“The idea that Jussie Smollett has been, or would be, written off Empire is patently ridiculous,” Fox said in a statement.
Smollett says he was on the phone with his manager, Brandon Z. Moore, and walking home from a Subway restaurant in Chicago at 2 a.m. Jan. 29 when he was accosted by two people who shouted racial slurs, tied a noose around his neck and doused him with a “chemical substance” resembling bleach.
During the GMA interview, he explained how he handed over heavily redacted call logs 13 days after the attack, on Tuesday, arguing the redactions were to protect “high-profile” friends.
“I have private pictures and videos and numbers — my partner’s number, my family’s numbers,” he told “Good Morning America” on Thursday.
The actor opened up about why he did not at first want to report the crime to police.
“There’s a level of pride there,” he said. “We live in a society where, as a gay man, you are considered somehow to be weak, and I am not weak. I am not weak and we as a people are not weak.”
The investigation has been stymied by a lack of security-camera footage — and Smollett’s initial refusal to furnish police with phone records.
While a lack of security footage cast doubt on Smollett’s account, he said that there was a camera near where he was attacked — but cops told him it was facing the wrong way.
“How is that my issue?” Smollett said in the interview. “I want that video found so badly.”