Jussie Smollett Update: Texts, Emails Reveal Foxx Asked Johnson to Turn Investigation Over to FBI

New documents showing text messages and email chains revealed Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's asked Supt. Eddie Johnson to turn the Jussie Smollett investigation over to the FBI before she recused herself from the case.

The documents, obtained Wednesday by NBC 5 via a Freedom of Information Act request, show correspondence between Foxx, an unknown person and Tina Tchen, a one-time assistant to former President Barack Obama and Chief of Staff to Michelle Obama.

In an email, Tchen said she knows the Smollett family and said they "have concerns about the investigation" into his alleged hate crime attack, which police now say was hoax staged to boost his career.

In the messages, Foxx tells an unknown person who contacted her through Tchen, that she "spoke to the superintendent" and was "trying to figure out logistics."

In a later email, Foxx tells Tchen she "convinced" Johnson "to reach out to FBI to ask that they take over the investigation."

"He is reaching out now and will get back to me shortly," she wrote on Feb. 1, weeks before Smollett was charged with disorderly conduct for filing a false report.

Foxx ultimately recused herself from the case and delegated it to her first assistant Joseph Magats.

In the weeks since, Smollett has been indicted on 16 felony counts in connection with the attack. He is expected to appear in court Thursday.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/jussie-smollett-update-kim-foxx-texts-emails-507107451.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_CHBrand