this is "nightline." >> tonight, new clues. a potential break in the jesse smollett case. police releasing images of two people they want to talk to. the "empire" actor says he's the victim of a brutal hate crime. what police say new video shows just moments after. plus from a young age, jackie ivanko showed us she's got talent. ♪ tonight she's revealing her private battle while growing up in the spotlight. but first the "nightline 5." >> no matter how much you clean, does your house still smell stuffy? that's because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. so try febreze fabric refresher.

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good evening. thank you for joining us. we begin with the latest in the jussie smollett case. he's the actor who told police he was attacked. tonight chicago authorities are looking for two people seen on surveillance cameras. in what police say new video shows smollett doing in the moments after the attack. jussie smollett is best known for his breakout role in the hit show "empire." ♪

tonight a potential break in the case of an alleged hate crime against him. police releasing these images of two potential persons of interest, asking the public for help in identifying them. they were spotted on surveillance camera on the same street smollett says he was attacked because of his race and sexuality. >> i don't have a last name on the cell phone regarding a friend who was assaulted and battered when he walked out of his apartment. >> reporter: downtown chicago, smollett just got off a plane from new york when he grabbed a bite to eat at his local subway. he was walking back home alone when two assailants approached him wearing ski masks and yelling homophobe and i can racist slurs at the actor who is gay. he told police they began to attack him and pour an unknown substance over him before tieing a rope around his neck. but police tell abc news tonight that smollett was seen on camera walking into an apartment building with a rope hanging around his neck "wearing it like a necktie" before eventually

calling police from inside that building. >> he's supposed to be well known, requesting a report, said a noose was placed over the friend's neck, ems refused. >> reporter: the entertainer walked himself to the nearby northwestern hospital. when police arrived smollett was still wearing the rope around his neck. they now say they're analyzing that rope. "empi "empire" cocreator lee daniels posting this since-deleted photo showing jussie, he says, after the attack. chicago pd says in a follow-up interview actor smollett first reported the incident. he later told police his alleged attackers yelled "maga country." smollett's music manager said he was on the phone with him during the attack. i heard that clearly, he told abc news, i heard the scuffle and i heard the racial slur. smollett has been the target of threats before. january 22nd, police confirmed a letter was sent to the fox studio in chicago with threatening language and laced with a powdery substance, likely tylenol. >> if it's maybe a heat crime, you're going to look at the

social media and do -- of the victim and a more detailed background of the victim and people associated with the victim. >> reporter: now chicago police say they are taking this investigation very seriously, and the victim in this case ish detectives. smollett has been treated and released from the hospital. police, assisted by the fbi, say that this streaterville neighborhood is well monitored with lots of private and city surveillance cameras. however, after reviewing hundreds of hours of tape, police say they have not yet found any video of the attack itself. police do say they have video that places smollett alone at the scene of the crime. >> the labor it take to go through all those tapes can really take you a lot of hours. there's a variance in cameras. some stationary, some are moving, some are private. >> reporter: daniel showing his support in this instagram video. >> you didn't deserve nor anybody deserves to have a noose put around your neck. >> reporter: terrence howard, who plays smollett's dad onscreen, says the cast was told

about the incident on set. >> we've been a family for the last five years. so this hearing, you know, as far as i know, 17 hours a day jussie smollett is my son. so you're feeling this helplessness, this hopelessness that your children, the people that you love, aren't safe. >> reporter: taraji p. henson, when plays his mother, posting this message writing, i wish what happened to my baby was just one big bad joke, but it wasn't. we all feel his pain right now. fox, the studio behind the hit show, writing in a statement, the entire studio, network, and production stands u despicable violence and hate, and especially against one of our own. and it's not just his colleagues. reaction to smollett's story also quickly hitting a nerve on social media. stars like viola davis, john legend, kerry washington tweeting their support. for many it's the details that

have come out. a rope around a black man that evoke painful memories from a different time and a different place. ♪ black bodies swinging >> reporter: it's been nearly 80 years since billie holiday sang the protest song "strange fruit." ♪ strange fruit hanging >> reporter: a metaphor about how commonplace it was to lynch blacks in the south. >> this is an historic piece of legislation. >> reporter: it was only in december 2018, almost 140 years after the practice first began en masse that congress finally passed a bill designating lynching as a hate crime. >> when they add the noose, you know, it's not just a homophobic crime now, it's >> reporter: smollett came out as gay in 2015 on "ellen." >> it's really important to make sure that it got across that there is no closet, there's never been a closet that i've been in. >> reporter: since then he has

been an advocate for human rights, donating proceeds of his album "some of my music" to the black aids institute. ♪ it's the kind of song that makes a man of a man ♪ >> reporter: his life perhaps the inspiration he draws from for the character he plays on "empire." the middle son jamal. >> he just came out. >> reporter: a son who has to come out to his homophobic father lucius. >> we discuss things that oftentimes haven't been discussed, especially within the black and minority or hispanic communities approaching homosexuality and how it is expressed. >> reporter: daniel says that smollett's alleged attack is illustrative of the hate that pervades this country. >> america is better than that. it starts at home. it starts a at home, yo. we have to love each other, regardless of what sexual orientation we are. because it shows that we are united on a united front. hold your head up, jussie. i'm with you, i'll be there in a minute. it's just another [ bleep ] day

in america. >> reporter: whether or not this is truly a new paragraph in our nation's most troubled chapter is yet to be determined. for now the country is left to wait as authorities continue to look for exactly what happened on a cold night in chicago. next, why "america's got talent's" jackie evancho is singing a different tune about her struggle with stardom. ♪ unpredictable crohn's symptoms following you? for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house

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journey to stardom over the years. tonight she's taking us down a different path, revealing to paula faris her once-private struggle with eating disorder and her road to recovery. ♪ >> reporter: the girl with the voice of an angel. ♪ discovered on "america's got talent" at just 10 years old. now jackie evancho has transformed from that tiny performer to an 18-year-old woman. ♪ revealing for the first time the struggle she's faced growing up in the public eye. >> i always diagnosed with anorexia. i've been dealing with it since i was 15. i was only diagnosed when i was 17. >> when did you start having those struggles? with your weight? >> i think that when i started

to really develop, like a woman's body instead. when i was 15. i just started high school again, public school. and i was just really self-conscious with my stomach and my face. >> and i would imagine being in the spotlight, like you said, seeing photos of yourself kind of amplified a lot of those issues, right? >> yes, and i see all these other celebrities and i want to look like them, not myself. >> reporter: her parents noticed her skipping meals and intervened to get her help. >> luckily i have a support system who loves me. having an eating disorder is like having another you inside your head screaming all the worst things that you could hear about yourself. you're ugly, you're fat, you're stupid, you're worthless, all that stuff. and it's just every time you look in the mirror, you see something that's not there. with my eating disorder, i have body dysmorphia as well. so i won't be able to see what my reflection actually is.

because whatever it is in my head is distorting it. >> how do you deal with it now? >> i guess i'm a little more vocal about the thoughts that i have. when i have them. if i'm struggling, i'll tell my parents i'm having a hard time, what do i do? >> you're very open and honest with those around you? >> yes. and that's key to avoiding, stopping, and recovering from an eating disorder. >> reporter: jackie considers herself a private person, despite so much of her life being out in the open. including on the tlc special "growing up evancho." >> standing on stage, it's definitely an escape. ♪ >> reporter: which featured jackie's transgender sister, juliette. >> my body didn't match my brain. >> reporter: "nightline" has followed the family over the years. ♪ o say can you see by >> reporter: first on the eve of jackie's performance at president trump's inauguration. she faced criticism for

participating due to the trump administration's early record on gay rights. >> it got really mean. people were saying that i was -- a word i can't say live. because i chose president trump over family, supposedly, because of the whole lgbtq controversy. >> seeing my sister go through all of the hate mail, it broke my heart. because the way jackie looked at it, it was nothing political. >> reporter: jackie says she may have lost fans as a result. >> everything that i do, i take seriously. and there are reasons that i have that they're not always going to understand. and i will never turn my back on my family no matter what. they're number one for me. i would give up my career in a heartbeat for them. >> reporter: but jackie says fighting unwanted political battles is not the only hazard of her celebrity. >> there was a lot of issues with pedophiles following me everywhere. i've had so many crazy

experiences. i've had people pretend to be priests or say they're priests, then they get backstage. there was an instance where a priest asked me to sit on his lap while backstage. and i'm so glad i was smart enough to say, i'm not comfortable with that. >> was he dressed like a priest? >> uh-huh, he had the collar on and everything. >> were you ever harmed in any way? >> i was never harmed physically. but mentally, i developed a lot of fears. there was just a lot of things that kind of changed who i was. >> reporter: she says her family has stepped in to help keep her safe. >> my parents tried really hard to -- when i'm doing meet and greets, to make sure there were security guards there and that they would keep people at a distance. ♪ >> reporter: the vocalist saying she feels more empowered now and is taking control of her career. >> people could tell me their ideas and i can reject them instead of me telling them ideas and them getting rejected. ♪ he could be

>> reporter: putting her personal touch on a new album filled with current broadway hits. ♪ but i'm not that girl >> this album is the most authentically me album to date. >> reporter: and speaking out about her personal challenges is part of her healing. >> i really wanted to be that perfect role model. and as time goes on and all these issues are coming to front in the world, i'm starting to realize that being a perfect role model is also showing that you're not perfect. ♪ something beautiful because that shows people that they can be just like you. even if you're not perfect. ♪ >> our thanks to paula. and next, inside the most explosive trump tell-all yet.

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500 days with the president were like. abc's david wright has that story. >> reporter: it's a measure of people's obsession that barely house has already spawned half a dozen best-sellers. the sheer number of tell-all books a sign that interest, intrigue, and staff turnover may be at an all-time high. >> there's the west wing. where was your office? >> so where the awning is, the window just to the left of that. >> reporter: cliff simms said he was proudly one of the deplo deplorab deplorables, the ragtag group of conservatives who helped elect donald trump. he stayed on through president trump's first 500 days. >> your books called "team of vipers." is the white house under donald trump a snake pit? >> i would say so, and i don't let myself off the hook for that. i was a viper too, i was one of them. >> reporter: that title a reference to doris kearns good win's book about the first

republican his team of rivals, trump had his team of vipers. we served, we fought, we brought our personal egos and vendettas, we were ruthless. and some of us, i assume, were good people. >> simms wasn't a senior staffer but he was an early staffmember. he says he built a rapport with the president and there's proof he was in the room where it happened. but you have to look closely to see him. >> official title was special assistant to the president and director of white house message strate. >> what was your actual job description? >> my job description, much like everyone else's, whatever donald trump wanted it to be that day. >> i, donald john trump, do solemnly swear -- >> reporter: simms says after the inauguration, that meant placating the president who wass president obama's. >> my impression was that the president wanted something done, he wanted this fixed. >> reporter: simms says he and others holed up with sean

spicer, trying desperately to pushback. >> we're getting all kinds of different stuff about the magnetometers, people getting onto the mall, it was taking longer than it should have. ultimately i'm writing this thing. all the numbers we've been given turned out to be wrong. we didn't fact check them. >> reporter: the results? >> this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period! both in person and around the globe. >> reporter: one of the most disastrous first impressions of any white house press secretary in recent memory. >> i felt bad because i had played a part in that. like the first thing that i put my hands on in the white house was a debacle. >> did that kind of set the tone, almost? i mean, it certainly sucked the credibility out of that podium. >> yes. >> reporter: spicer had no comment on sam's book, but the president sure did. tweeting yesterday, a low-level staffer that i hardly knew named cliff simms wrote yet another boring book based on made-up stories and fiction. he pretended to be an insider

when in fact he wassing in more than a gofer. he signed a nondisclosure agreement, he is a mess. trump's team is threatening to sue simms. >> every couple months we get this new book that's a bombshell, it's from a former staffer, everybody's supposed to scurry around. nobody's talking about it here. >> reporter: kellyanne conway comes in for sharp criticism in the book. simms describes her as a cartoon villain brought to life. simms left the white house in may 2018. he claims he resigned. but admits there were issues with his security clearance and he got in trouble for recording a cell phone video of the president. >> the last chapter of the book is titled "disposable." and the reason is, that i let my personal relationship with the president blind me to the one unfailing truth of trump world. if we didn't share his last name, we were all disposable. >> from deplorable to disposable. >> that's right. >> reporter: and yet simms says, for all the chaos and venom, he's willing to give president

trump the benefit of the doubt. >> he's doing a good job and maybe has a chance to be a great president. but what i wrestle with is, what if he were a better man? imagine what change could happen in this world then. >> that's "nightline." you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. thanks for the company, america. good night.

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