Southern Poverty declares war on Trump, with Michelle Obama aide’s help
The Southern Poverty Law Center is fundraising for a wide-ranging war on President Trump, and has enlisted a top aide to former first lady Michelle Obama who played a key role in the dropping of felony charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
Trump’s name was used five times in a fundraising memo from Bryan Fair, chairman of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s board of directors. “Given the rising tide of hate and given the callousness of the Trump administration, our work is as critical as ever. I can assure you that we will continue to work as hard as we can to combat the forces of hate and bigotry and to seek justice for the most marginalized people in our country,” he wrote in the memo provided to Secrets and subsequently posted on the center’s webpage.
Fair also revealed that SPLC, which has been rocked by scandal recently, has brought on Obama’s chief of staff to help in its efforts. “We’ve just launched an initiative with Tina Tchen — a former chief of staff for Michelle Obama and one of the leading voices behind the Times UP Legal Defense Fund — to advise us on workplace culture issues. Everyone who works at the SPLC deserves a workplace that reflects our highest values, and we’re committed to making sure that it happens,” he wrote. Tchen’s involvement in the shocking move to drop the charges against Smollett of making a false hate crime claim to police has been a key focus in the Chicago media, which has reported she contacted the prosecutor’s office with concerns about the probe.
According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell, “The credibility of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office was already compromised after Kim Foxx had to recuse herself because she corresponded with Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff for Michelle Obama, after Smollett had reported that he was attacked on Jan. 29. Tchen had reached out on behalf of Smollett’s family with concerns about how the investigation was being handled.”
Fair made the war on Trump a key element of his fundraising appeal, noting SPLC’s efforts to block the administration on several issues, including on immigration. He wrote, “Our financial strength allows us to stand up to formidable adversaries and to take on complex, costly federal court litigation. It has allowed us to hire more than 200 people since the 2016 election to meet the critical human rights challenges the country is facing. It has allowed us to open four new offices at detention centers in remote locations in the Deep South, in less than two years, to represent people fleeing persecution and grinding poverty in their home countries and others already here who have been caught up in President Trump’s deportation machine. Without the free legal counsel we provide, they would have no lawyers and no chance of defending themselves in court against deportation. Our endowment ensures that we’ll be able to carry on our work far into the future.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/southern-poverty-declares-war-on-trump-with-michelle-obama-aides-help
See Full Fund Raising Letter above