“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was “officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation” by authorities on Wednesday for allegedly “filing a false police report” in connection with his attack claims, Chicago police said.

The update in the case was provided by the department's Chief Communications Officer Anthony Guglielmi on Twitter. Detectives on the case laid out evidence to a grand jury in Cook County, he said.

Smollett, who is openly gay and black, reported that on Jan. 29, he was attacked by two masked men as he was walking home from a Subway restaurant. He claimed that the men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs at him, poured a chemical substance on him, threw a rope around his neck and shouted, "This is MAGA country!"

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