This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Attorneys for the actor and singer Jussie Smollett have said there is no truth to reports that he played a role in orchestrating an alleged assault on him last month by what he described as two men shouting homophobic and racial slurs.

Jussie Smollett says he was assaulted because of his criticisms of Trump Read more

In a statement late Saturday the lawyers said: “Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.”

The lawyers said Smollett, who stars in the TV drama Empire, would continue to cooperate with police.

Earlier on Saturday, Chicago police said their investigation of the attack had “shifted” following the interrogation of two men. The brothers from Nigeria were first considered suspects, but then released on Friday without being charged.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told CBS Chicago: “We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation. We’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview.”

Smollett’s attorneys said one of the men was the actor’s personal trainer, hired to prepare him physically for a music video.

Smollett, who is black and gay, has said he was attacked by two masked men shouting racial and homophobic slurs and a Trump slogan: “This is MAGA country!”

On Thursday, in his first detailed interview since the alleged 29 January assault, Smollett was asked by ABC’s Good Morning America why he thinks he was targeted. In his reply, he referred to Donald Trump by his moniker as the 45th president.

“I come really, really hard against 45,” he said. “I come really, really hard against his administration and I don’t hold my tongue.”

Smollett was played a clip of Trump responding to news of the alleged attack. The president said: “I think that’s horrible. It doesn’t get worse as far as I’m concerned.”

The actor said he appreciated Trumps words, but added that he had no doubt that his assailants were motivated by his criticism of the president.

With ABC censoring the comment on taste grounds, Smollett said: “I can only go off of their words. Who says, ‘[bleep] Empire, this Maga country,’ [bleep] ties a noose around your neck and pours bleach on to you? And this is just a friendly fight?”

Smollett told police the men looped a rope around his neck before running away as he was out getting food at a Subway restaurant early on 29 January. He said they also poured some kind of chemical on him.

Police have been unable to find surveillance video of the alleged attack.

On Sunday the Democratic presidential contender Cory Booker, who called the alleged attack on Smollett a “modern-day lynching” after the actor reported it, said he was now withholding judgment.

After meeting hundreds of voters in Rochester, New Hampshire, the New Jersey senator said he would reserve judgment “until all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources”.

Turning his focus back to combating hate crimes broadly, Booker called for a unified pushback against “attacks on people because they’re different”.