Chicago police chief responds to claim that Smollett check was for 'training' — and makes a stunning statement

The Chicago police superintendent responded Monday to claims that one of their key pieces of evidence against Jussie Smollett was being undermined, and dropped a bombshell on the defense for the Empire star.

Superintendent Eddie Johnson told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America that Smollett had the presumption of innocence, but explained that the police had much more evidence than the check that has been undermined in the media.

"Did the brothers specifically say that was for the attack?" Roberts asked.

"They said that he paid them thirty-five hundred with a check," Johnson responded.

"But did they say what it was for?" she pressed.

"Yeah, to uh, carry out this incident," he responded.

'Physical evidence, video evidence, and testimony'

Johnson added at the end of the interview that despite all the evidence they had presented already in order to prove Smollett had orchestrated the attack, they had much more in store that had not been revealed yet.

"You know I was very acutely aware of the situation in terms of the Chicago police department declaring he was a suspect," said Johnson.

"But I can tell you this, Robin," he continued, "there's a lot more evidence that hasn't been presented yet that does not support the version that he gave."

"There's more because you presented quite a bit," responded Roberts, "I mean legal experts said that's the most that they've seen being presented up front like that."

"But there's still a lot of physical evidence, video evidence, and testimony that just simply doesn't support his version of what happened," he concluded.

Here's the video interview of Johnson:

Chicago police chief speaks out on Jussie Smollett casewww.youtube.com