CHICAGO — An ex-Michelle Obama aide said Wednesday she had limited involvement in assisting “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s family get in touch with the…
CHICAGO — An ex-Michelle Obama aide said Wednesday she had limited involvement in assisting “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s family get in touch with the Chicago-area’s top prosecutor last month.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx earlier this month released a series of text messages and emails to and from Tina Tchen, a prominent Chicago attorney and former chief of staff to Michelle Obama, and an unnamed Smollett relative.
The messages were sent to convey the family’s unease with how police were handling their investigation of an alleged attack on the actor at a moment when police were still classifying Smollett as a victim, according to Tchen.
“I know members of the Smollett family based on prior work together,” Tchen said in a statement. “Shortly after Mr. Smollett reported he was attacked, as a family friend, I contacted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who I also know from prior work together. My sole activity was to put the chief prosecutor in the case in touch with an alleged victim’s family who had concerns about how the investigation was being characterized in public.”
Foxx said she recused herself from the investigation because of her contacts with Tchen and the Smollett family member. The prosecutor wrote to Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson after the contacts to convey that the family wanted the FBI to take over the investigation, according to copies of emails and text released by the State’s Attorney’s Office.
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Tchen’s comments are her first about her involvement in the case and come one day after Foxx’s office abruptly announced they were dropping charges against Smollett, who was charged last month for disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
