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Police have not publicly discussed the new evidence that prompted them to request a follow-up interview with Smollett, but they said the information came up in interviews with two people who were arrested last week and released Friday without being charged. Police say at least one of the two men – who are brothers and of Nigerian descent – worked on the Fox drama with Smollett, but declined to say whether the actor knew them.

There have been heightened doubts about Smollett’s allegations amid news reports, which cited unnamed police sources, that he may have staged the attack. In a statement late Saturday, attorneys Pugh and Henderson said Smollett had “been further victimized by claims” that he “played a role in his own attack.”

Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN.com

“Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying,” they wrote in the statement, adding that one of the individuals who spoke to police was a personal trainer whom Smollett hired to help him get ready for a music video.

Smollett has aligned himself in the past with organizations dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness, civil rights and LGBTQ advocacy. He invoked this while discussing the skepticism surrounding his claims during an interview that aired last week on “Good Morning America.”

“I’m an advocate. I respect too much the people — who I am now, one of those people — who have been attacked in any way,” he told ABC’s Robin Roberts. “You do such a disservice when you lie about things like this.”

When details of Smollett’s alleged assault were released by police last month, celebrities and other high-profile figures rallied around him — some seizing on the apparently racist and homophobic nature of the alleged attack or the reported invocation of President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. But mounting questions surrounding the case caused unease.

“Why would he make it harder for people who actually suffer from hate crimes? It makes no sense. The lie is so damaging,” writer Roxane Gay tweeted Saturday. She previously wrote that she hoped Smollett “knows how many people are thinking of him and committed to holding this administration and its ilk accountable for this hothouse of hate being fostered.”