>>15109874
>>15109820
Tina Tchen stepping up fight to quash Jussie Smollett subpoena
Tina Tchen, former chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, in new court filings, argues the subpoena filed by retired Judge Sheila O’Brien is improper.
By Lynn Sweet May 29, 2019, 3:00pm CDT
Share this story
Share this on Facebook (opens in new window)
Share this on Twitter (opens in new window)
SHARE
All sharing options
Tina Tchen
Tina Tchen was in contact with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx before charges were dropped against actor Jussie Smollett. Sun-Times files
WASHINGTON — Tina Tchen, former chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, stepped up her fight on Wednesday to quash a subpoena digging for information about her role in Jussie Smollett’s alleged fake hate crime case.
Lawyers for Tchen, an attorney who heads the Chicago office of Buckley LLP, were filing a motion to quash the subpoena in Cook County Circuit Court, the latest twist in a case that started out with Smollett, an openly gay African American actor who starred in “Empire,” initially claiming that he was the victim of a racially motivated and homophobic attack.
Smollett ended up being charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly staging the attack but those charges were abruptly dropped. The actor forfeited the $10,000 bond he posted and never admitted any wrongdoing.
Tchen is resisting a subpoena that is an outgrowth of a civil case filed by retired former state of Illinois Appeals Court Judge Sheila O’Brien, who has filed multiple legal bids related to the Smollett case and the handling of it by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Why O’Brien is so actively interested in the case has not yet become clear.
O’Brien jumped in the case in April, asking a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Foxx.
Michelle Obama's ex-top aide texted the Jussie Smollett prosecutor early in the case. Some want that investigated
Tina Tchen's longtime friend wasn't surprised the ex-Obama administration aide helped connect Jussie Smollett's family with a top Illinois prosecutor.
By Ray Sanchez
Updated Mar. 30, 2019 15:14 pm
CNN —
Tina Tchen’s longtime friend wasn’t surprised the former Obama administration aide helped connect Jussie Smollett’s family with a top Illinois prosecutor.
Weeks before a grand jury indicted Smollett on the theory he falsely reported being the victim of a hate crime, relatives of the actor, who is black and gay, had expressed to Tchen “concerns about the investigation” by Chicago police.
Getting the right person to take those sort of concerns seriously has been a hallmark of Tchen’s career, highlighted by a stint as then-first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff and now by her work leading a probe of workplace culture at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Long before Black Lives Matter, long before Time’s Up, long before #MeToo, we were aware of how difficult it is to be believed as a woman, as a gay, as a black,” Tchen’s friend, Marilyn Katz, said. “Our whole lives have taught us that lesson.”
But the involvement of Tchen, a Harvard graduate who earned her law degree from Northwestern University, in the Smollett case has sparked accusations of favoritism, particularly after the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx this week dropped 16 felony charges of disorderly conduct against Smollett. In exchange, he agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bail and complete community service.
Tchen, 63, said her contact with Foxx on behalf of Smollett’s family was not intended to influence the case’s outcome.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/30/us/jussie-smollett-tina-tchen/index.html