Tina Tchen, an attorney and former chief of staff to Michelle Obama, has come under renewed scrutiny for her involvement in the Jussie Smollett case after prosecutors dropped all charges against the actor.
Tchen, a friend of the Smollett family, contacted Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx with 'concerns' about the investigation days after Smollett claimed he'd been victimized in a hate crime.
'I wanted to give you a call on behalf of Jussie Smollett and the family who I know. They have concerns about the investigation,' Tchen, 63, wrote in an email to Foxx on February 1, three days after the purported attack, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Now, after Foxx's office on Tuesday dropped all 16 felony counts of filing a false police report against Smollett, while admitting that they still believe he staged the hate crime as a hoax, Tchen's involvement in the affair is drawing fresh attention.
Former Michelle Obama chief of staff Tina Tchen (left) has come under scrutiny for her communications with Chicago State's Attorney Kim Foxx (right) about Jussie Smollett
Foxx's office shocked the nation on Tuesday by dropping all charges against Smollett (above) despite prosecutors saying they still believed he faked a hate crime attack against himself
Tchen contacted Foxx on February 1, three days after Smollett claimed he had been attacked. Foxx replied that she had contacted the police superintendent to ask for an FBI takeover
Tchen graduated from Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law and began practicing law in 1983.
While working as an attorney with international law firm Skadden Arps in the 1990s and 2000s, she was a regular donor to Democrat political candidates, disclosure records show.
In 2009, she joined the Obama White House with an appointment to the Office of Public Engagement.
She worked in the Obama Administration throughout the following eight years, including as as assistant to the president, chief of staff for Michelle Obama, and executive director of the Council on Women and Girls.
Tchen currently leads the Chicago branch of Buckley LLP, where she focuses on gender and diversity issues in the workplace.
Last week, she was hired by the Southern Poverty Law Center to examine the troubled group's workplace culture after the co-founder was fired and the president resigned.
Tchen worked as a chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama. They are seen together above in 2015 at the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit
Tchen (far right) looks on in 2009 as then President Obama signs an Executive Order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls, which Tchen would lead as executive director
Obama and Joe Biden meet with the Council on Women and Girls in the Oval Office in 2014. Tchen is seen sitting on the far right next to former Attorney General Eric Holder
Tchen has accumulated a number of awards, inculding the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement award from the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession and the Women of Achievement award from the Anti-Defamation League, among many others.
Tchen's exact connection to Jussie Smollett and her motive in reaching out to Foxx remain unclear. She did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment from DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
What is known is that Tchen contacted Foxx on February 1, three days after Smollett claimed that two white men had assaulted him in the street shouting racist and anti-gay slurs, as well as slogans of President Donald Trump.
Tchen wanted Foxx to convince Chicago police to hand the investigation over to the FBI, and Foxx agreed to try.
Several hours later, Foxx received a text message from one of Smollett's relatives.
Foxx indicated that she was trying to get the investigation turned over to the FBI.
'Spoke to the [police] superintendent earlier, he made the ask. Trying to figure out logistics. I'll keep you posted,' Foxx wrote.
'Omg this would be a huge victory,' Smollett's relative replied to the prosecutor.
Foxx replied: 'I make no guarantees but I'm trying.'
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx is seen earlier this year. She is under scrutiny for her communications with Tchen and a Smollett family member
Text messages between Foxx and a Smollett family member are seen above
The messages between Foxx and a Smollett family member continued through February 13
On February 13, the chief ethics officer in the State's Attorney Office sent out this internal memo notifying staff that Foxx was recused from the Smollett case
While the relative has not been unidentified, Tchen appears to have close ties with Smollett's sisters.
Tchen and Smollett's sister Jurnee Smollett-Bell were pictured together at an event at Austin's South by Southwest and the United State of Women Summit in Los Angeles early last year.
Both of Smollett's sisters also worked for the Obama campaign in 2008 and 2012 and Smollett-Bell also reportedly visited Tchen in the White House.
Smollett himself has been pictured with the Obamas at the White House and once danced on stage with Michelle in a viral video from an event last year.
Despite Foxx's apparent efforts, the CPD remained the lead investigators on the purported hate crime attack, and did not hand the case over to the FBI.
At the time, Smollett was still officially considered a victim in the case, though local reporters in Chicago were already revealing that police investigators were highly skeptical of Smollett's claims.
At the time, spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office said that Smollett's relative was specifically concerned about leaks to the media that purportedly came from the Chicago Police Department.
Tchen and Smollett's sister Jurnee Smollett-Bell were pictured together at an event at Austin's South by Southwest early last year. Both of Smollett's sisters worked on Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012
Foxx was contacted by former Michelle Obama aide Tina Tchen who wanted to try and steer the investigation in the direction the Smollett family wanted. Smollett is pictured above with the Obamas in the White House
Smollett himself has been pictured with the Obamas at the White House and once danced on stage with Michelle in a viral video from an event last year
The communications between Smollett's relative and Foxx continued through the morning of February 13, the day before Good Morning America aired a tearful interview with Smollett, and police detained two Nigerian brothers for questioning in the case.
At 6.16pm on February 13, the chief ethics officer in the State's Attorney Office sent out an internal memo notifying staff that Foxx was recused from the Smollett case.
In her place, First Assistant State's Attorney Joe Magats was appointed as the lead prosecutor on the case.
A spokeswoman for the state's attorney office said that Foxx had been recused due to her contacts with the Smollett family.
'When she [Foxx] initially engaged in the communications, Mr. Smollett was still believed to be the victim of the crime,' spokeswoman Kiera Ellis told the Tribune. 'As the investigation started to change and it became a possibility that he could actually be a suspect, that is when she made the decision (to recuse herself).'
It is not uncommon for people to approach Foxx with information or concerns about cases, and it is 'fairly typical' for her to contact Johnson directly to request updates or get information, Ellis said.
Smollett was arrested on February 21 on suspicion of filing a false police report. A grand jury later indicted him on 16 felony counts of filing a false report.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said that all of the charges against Smollett had been dropped.
In a bizarre interview, lead prosecutor Magats said that he personally believed that Smollett was guilty of staging a fake hate crime, but that resources were too constrained to pursue the case.
Lead prosecutor Magats, who took over after Foxx was recused, said that he personally believed that Smollett was guilty of staging a fake hate crime after the charges were dropped
Smollett maintains that he was truthful in his account and was the victim of a hate crime.
The state's attorney's office said that Smollett's agreement to forfeit his $10,000 bond and perform 16 hours of community service constituted a 'just resolution' to the case.
The decision was blasted by Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who called the move a 'whitewash of justice.'
The Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago's police union, also demanded a federal probe into Foxx's actions in the case.
Chicago police have also alleged that Smollett sent a fake threatening letter to himself with white powder inside, which turned out to be crushed Tylenol.
No federal charges have been filed in the mail threat case, but an investigation by the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspector's office is ongoing.
Tchen has not publicly commented on her communications with Foxx.
However, another former top Obama aide has spoken out to slam prosecutors' actions in the case.
David Axelrod, 64, said 'someone wasn’t being truthful' and Chicago had paid the price in a series of tweets condemning the decision Tuesday.
The former president's campaign mastermind labelled the decision 'outrageous' as he asked why the Empire actor was allowed 'to get off for $10K and have his records expunged and case files sealed'.
Axelrod tweeted: 'Unless some better explanation surfaces, here’s the lesson of this weird turn in the Smollett case:
'You can contrive a hate crime, make it a national news, get caught and-if you are a well-connected celebrity-get off for $10K and have your record expunged and files sealed.'
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/27/tina-tchen-michelle-obamas-former-chief-of-staff-draws-scrutiny-in-jussie-smollett-case/
Main photo article Tina Tchen, an attorney and former chief of staff to Michelle Obama, has come under renewed scrutiny for her involvement in the Jussie Smollett case after prosecutors dropped all charges against the actor.
Tchen, a friend of the Smollett family, contacted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/27/16/11527308-6856245-image-m-33_1553703095830.jpg
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