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Report Michelle Obama’s former chief-of-staff intervened in Jussie Smollett case raises eyebrows

March 14, 2019 | | Print Article

 

(Government works public domain)

Tina Tchen, a former top-level Obama era official who served as then-first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff from 2011 to 2017, intervened in the investigation of disgraced Hollywood actor Jussie Smollett in a way that many see as being inordinately sketchy.

The intervention involved Chicago’s top prosecutor, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. After Smollett claimed publicly in late January that two white Trump supporters had assaulted him, Tchen reached out to Foxx and requested that she ask Chicago authorities to transfer the case to the FBI.

“I wanted to give you a call on behalf of Jussie Smollett and family who I know. They have concerns about the investigation,” Tchen, a Chicago attorney, wrote to Foxx in a text message sent Feb. 1, three days after the since-debunked assault, according to emails and texts reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“A few hours later, Foxx received a text from a relative of Smollett, who said she’d received the number from Tchen,” the Sun-Times reported. “In an interview with the Sun-Times this week, Foxx said that the family member expressed concerns about leaked information about the investigation — information that media outlets attributed to ‘police sources.'”

“They had no doubt about the quality of the investigation, but believed that the FBI would have a tighter lid on the information,” she told the paper this week.

And so she complied with the relative’s request after she spoke with him or her.

“Spoke to the Superintendent Johnson,” she wrote to Tchen in an email sent later that evening. “I convinced him to reach out to FBI to ask that they take over the investigation.”

She also wrote something similar to the unnamed relative: “Spoke to the superintendent earlier, he made the ask. Trying to figure out logistics. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Omg this would be a huge victory,” the relative reportedly responded.

The good news for those who believe in uncorrupted justice is that the investigation was never transferred to the FBI, nor were there further discussions to make such a transfer.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi did confirm with the Sun-Times however that the FBI has been involved in the investigation since day one due to concerns Smollett had been the victim of a hate crime. It’s now known that he was, in fact, the perpetrator of a hate crime hoax.

Moreover, Foxx recused herself from the investigation into Smollett only a couple days before he was formally charged and arrested for having staged the alleged assault.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

Foxx has claimed she’s made similar calls to Johnson in cases involving non-famous clients. Defense lawyer and Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Richard Kling claims such calls are not unusual.

“I don’t think it is odd or rare for prosecutors to talk to police, or for (Foxx) herself to ask what is going on in a particular case,” he said to the Sun-Times. “And, once she realized she had talked to a family member who may have given her information about a pending case, recusing herself was exactly the right thing to do.”

He did admit though it’s unusual for a state’s attorney’s phone number to be doled out to a member of the public.

Overall, it doesn’t appear Foxx did anything wrong. Can the same be said of Tchen? That remains unclear. Also unknown is whether her former boss, Michelle Obama, had anything to do with her decision to contact Foxx and make a request on behalf of Smollett’s family.

Some appear to think everything is linked:

Others are just fed up over the endless Democrat-linked corruption:

Smollett appeared in court on Thursday and plead “not guilty” to charges he lied to police:

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

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Vivek Saxena
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