A Chicago judge signed off on a search warrant seeking to obtain actor Jussie Smollett’s Google account emails.
Judge Michael Toomin ordered Google to turn over Smollett’s private messages, photographs, emails and location data as part of a special prosecution probe a month ago, according to a report published Wednesday by the Chicago Tribune.
Actor Jussie Smollett speaks with members of the media after his court appearance at Leighton Courthouse on March 26, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. This morning in court it was announced that all charges were dropped against the actor. (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
The special prosecution probe led by former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb was brought about to investigate why Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx abruptly dropped all 16 counts of disorderly conduct against Smollett back in March. The disorderly conduct charges came after Chicago police accused Smollett of paying two brothers $3,500 to stage a hate crime attack.
Toomin appointed Webb as a special prosecutor in August “to restore the public’s confidence in the integrity of our criminal justice system.” (RELATED: Jussie Smollett Files Malicious Prosecution Counterclaim Against Chicago)
Google was ordered to give up drafted and deleted messages, Google Voice texts, any files in Google Drive cloud storage service, calls and contacts, location data and search and web browsing history from both Smollett and his manager.
It is unclear if Google has given up any information to Webb.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed authorities are conducting “follow-ups” on its initial investigation into Smollett, but gave no extra information.
The controversy following the alleged hate crime led Fox to pull Smollett from “Empire.”