The Post\u2019s discovery of a hot sauce bottle that reeked of bleach at the scene of Jussie Smollett\u2019s alleged hate-crime hoax turned out to\u2026<\/b>
\nThe Post\u2019s discovery of a hot sauce bottle that reeked of bleach at the scene of Jussie Smollett\u2019s alleged hate-crime hoax turned out to be a key piece of evidence, a police report revealed Wednesday.
Chicago cops initially pooh-poohed the finding on Feb. 7 \u2014 nine days after the \u201cEmpire\u201d star claimed he was attacked by Trump-loving bigots who splashed him with the cleaning fluid.
\u201cAre you trying to do our job?\u201d sneered one detective when reporter Gabrielle Fonrouge alerted police that she\u2019d found the bottle.
She wasn\u2019t, but, as it turns out, she had.
One of the two brothers who said they were paid by Smollett to stage the attack \u201cwas shown a large photograph taken of the El Yucateco Hot Sauce bottle,\u201d according to police reports released Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act to outlets including CWBChicago.
The alleged co-conspirator \u201cstated that indeed was the bottle he filled with bleach and poured on Smollett,\u201d the paperwork revealed.
Neither brother has been criminally charged.
Wednesday\u2019s revelation came despite initial skepticism of the reporter\u2019s detective work.
\u201cIt\u2019s highly unlikely that they missed anything that night,\u201d one cop said at the time.
\u201cThey already took everything from the scene.\u201d
Fonrouge was asked: \u201cDid you sniff all these bottles? What made you think this one?\u201d
\u201cWhat else did you find? Should we process all these cigarette butts?\u201d said a detective \u2014 who later groused while waiting for a crime-scene technician to arrive, \u201cThere goes my dinner plans.\u201d
The Chicago Police Department confirmed on Wednesday that the brothers who staged the attack admitted they used that bottle.
\u201cThose details were given during the interrogation when the brothers confessed to being accomplices in this hoax,\u201d spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Post.
The spokesman also said the department takes the detective\u2019s dismissive attitude toward the key piece of evidence \u201cvery seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n