Jussie Smollett’s manager refused to identify the star by name during a 911 call reporting the alleged attack on the actor that turned out to be a hoax, new audio reveals.
The embattled “Empire” star’s creative manager Frank Gatson made two 911 calls, with the first coming at 2:22 a.m. — about 20 minutes after Smollett says he was attacked by hate-spewing goons on a desolate Chicago street.
“I work with an artist — I don’t really want to say his name — but he states that [redaction] he went to Subway he was walking by and some guys somebody jumped him or something like that, and I just want to report it and make sure that he’s alright,” Gatson told the operator in the first of the two calls, which were obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Act request.
When asked why Smollett wasn’t calling the cops himself, Gatson responded, “He was cool, he didn’t want me to call you guys.”
The operator then informed Gatson that Smollett is the only one who can file a police report.
“He’s definitely gonna make the report. I’m gonna make him make the report,” Gatson replied in the 3-minute call.
The manager told the 911 dispatcher that Smollett doesn’t need medical attention.
“I just think he’s startled. I’m scared and I don’t know what it is — They put a noose around his neck. They didn’t do anything with it, but put it around his neck. That’s pretty f–ked up to me — sorry for saying it like that,” he said.
The operator said she’d alert police.
Then Gatson called back 16 minutes later at 2:38 a.m. to complain that cops hadn’t shown up yet.
“I reported I’ve been waiting on the police,” he said. “I thought they’d be here by now.”
The cops pulled up as Gatson ended that 3-minute call.
Smollett said he was jumped by two men who threw a noose around his neck and tossed bleach on him while shouting, “This is MAGA Country.” But his story fell apart when a pair of Nigerian brothers told cops Smollett paid them to stage the attack.
The actor was arrested for filing false police reports, but Chicago prosecutors shockingly dropped the charges in March. Now the City of Chicago is suing Smollett to pay back $130,000 in overtime costs associated with investigating the case.
Warning: explicit language