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"Empire" actor Jussie Smollett said he is "pissed off" after critics cast doubt over his claims that he was the victim of an alleged hate crime last month.
Smollett filed a report with the Chicago Police Department on Jan. 29 stating that two men hurled racist and homophobic slurs before beating him. Smollett also told police his attackers poured a chemical, possibly bleach, over him and put a noose around his neck.
The Chicago Police Department said it is investigating the alleged attack as a possible hate crime.
The 36-year-old actor, who is openly gay, told ABC's "Good Morning America" in a promotional clip released Wednesday that he is angry about the attack and at people who do not believe his claims.
"It's like, you know, at first, it was a thing of, like, 'Listen, if I tell the truth then that's it, 'cause it's the truth," Smollett said. "Then it became a thing of like, 'Oh, how can you doubt that? Like, how do you — how do you not believe that? It's the truth.'"
"And then it became a thing of like, 'Oh, it's not necessarily that you don't believe that this is the truth, you don't even want to see the truth,'" Smollett said.
Social media users began to cast doubt over Smollett's claims after police said they were not able to find footage of the alleged attack after going through a voluminous amount of recordings from the many surveillance cameras in the area. A day later, officials released a picture of two "potential persons of interest" from a surveillance camera located near where Smollett says he was attacked.
Then, police said Smollett refused to turn over his phone and phone records to prove he was on the phone with his manager at the time of the attack. Smollett later gave investigators a PDF file containing a redacted list of his calls.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson has said he has no reason to believe Smollett is "not being genuine with" investigators.
The actor released a statement in the days following the alleged assault and said he was "working with authorities, and have been 100 percent factual and consistent on every level."
Smollett's full interview with "Good Morning America" will air Thursday.