HAND ‘EM OVER

Illinois Judge Orders Google to Turn Over Jussie Smollett Data

Two search warrants were filed last month in the Circuit Court, which sought the actor’s data as part of a probe into his purported attack.

An Illinois judge has ordered Google to surrender Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s emails, photos, location data, and private messages for an entire year as authorities investigate the handling of his case. Two search warrants for the data, obtained by the Chicago Tribune, were filed last month in Circuit Court. They sought documentation from November 2018 to November 2019, including drafted and deleted messages, Google Drive cloud storage services, and Google Voice content. Special Prosecutor Dan Webb is leading the probe into the handling of the Smollett case. After reporting in January 2019 that he was attacked by two white men who called him racist and homophobic slurs and tied a rope around his neck in Chicago, prosecutors later alleged that the actor had staged the attack on himself. He was subsequently hit with a slew of charges, but Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx abruptly dropped all charges against Smollett in March 2019. Authorities are reportedly looking for any incriminating remarks from Smollett or his manager in regards to the purported attack.