Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty in court today to 16 felony charges in a fake hate attack, allegedly orchestrated by him. But before he was charged, and before he was officially named as a target of the probe, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff called the states’ attorney to exert her influence on Smollett’s behalf.

Three days after Jussie Smollett reported a pair of Maga attackers assaulted him in a hate crime, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx tried to persuade Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to turn the investigation over to the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

She did so at the behest of Tina Tchen, a Chicago attorney and former chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama, according to emails and text messages provided by Foxx to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a public records request.

Foxx did recuse herself which was the smart thing to do, but the communications and the use of influence are all too familiar.

The communications took place while Smollett was officially called a victim, but, honestly, the red flags were up the day the attack was reported.

Tchen had passed a Smollett relative’s phone number to Foxx and the relative texted Foxx within hours of Tchen’s call to Foxx.

During the calls and from text messages obtained by the newspaper via FOIA, Foxx clearly tried to convince the Chief to hand off the probe. The relative claimed she wanted to see the handoff out of concern over the leaks by the Chicago police.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

The paper reported:

The text messages show Foxx told both Tchen and Smollett’s relative that Foxx had reached out to Johnson personally about handing the investigation off to the FBI.

“Spoke to the superintendent earlier. He is going to make the ask. Trying to figure out logistics. I’ll keep you posted,” Foxx wrote the relative that evening.

“OMG this would be a huge victory,” the relative texted in reply.

In an email message to Tchen sent the same day, Foxx wrote: “Spoke to Superintendent Johnson. I convinced him to reach out to the FBI to ask that they take over the investigation. He is reaching out now and will get to me shortly.”

Foxx recused herself as it became clearer that Smollett was not a victim. Some of us would say it was pretty clear right away.

The FBI seems to be the place where Democrat crimes go to die. They disappear at the FBI.

