As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, “Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff said Wednesday that her behind-the-scenes communications with Cook County’s top prosecutor about the case involving actor Jussie Smollett were not intended at influencing the outcome of the case.”

The former chief of staff is Tina Tchen, who said in a statement:  “I know members of the Smollett family based on prior work together. 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.”

It wasn’t clear if Tina Tchen, 63, was actually representing anyone in the Smollett family. On the other hand, with her BA from Harvard and JD from Northwestern, Tchen is well qualified to represent top-drawer clients.

“A high-powered lawyer, Tina’s career accomplishments have established her as a powerful advocate for gender equality,” explains the Harry Walker Agency, the “world’s leading speakers’ bureau” representing Jeff Flake and Stacey Abrams, “a dynamic in-demand duo,” along with  Ben Rhodes, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and former UN boss Ban Ki-Moon, among many others.

As the agency notes, Tina is “spearheading the $13.7 million (with a goal to raise $15 million) Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which is administered by the National Women’s Law Center’s Legal Network for Gender Equity, and will connect female victims of sexual harassment with lawyers.” Tchen’s profile notes her White House service as chief of staff for the First Lady and special assistant to the president Barack Obama, but there’s more about Tina.

“Energetic, authentic and engaging on stage, she empowers the next generation to raise their voices and take action now to secure a better tomorrow for women and minorities across the country and world.” Who better to intervene on behalf of POTUS 44 pal Jussie Smollett and his family?

As Patrick Howley of Big League Politics observes, Tchen intervened with Kim Foxx to convince the judge to drop charges. Howley notes that “George Soros’s money largely helped put Foxx in office” and that the “pro-Bernie Sanders group Reclaim Chicago is sweet on Foxx as a politician.”

According to Reclaim Chicago: “The Jussie Smollett case is a sad commentary on our celebrity obsessed society as well the fact that real hate crimes against Black LGBTQ in Chicago each year go without the same attention from police and the media.” Nearly 30 percent of hate crimes were against African Americans, the group claims, and “the next most frequent targets involved sexual orientation at 17.6 percent.” The victims “are often not believed by police and are more likely the victims of police violence.” So the Smollett hoax plays into the anti-cop narrative, but the story is more layered.

Howley also dug up a 2017 Instagram post from Jussie Smollett’s sister Jurnee Smollett-Bell. She had been invited to introduce Senator Obama during the primaries, when the odds were stacked against him. He said he was “too young, too black, too different” and he was “an other.” Jurnee worked the phone banks for the candidate and as he left office she wrote “You will go down as the greatest president who did the most with the least help from his ‘congressional leaders.’ So I thank you for being you.” This could have been the Smollett family member on whose behalf the dynamic, high-powered Tina Tchen intervened.

Jussie Smollett already had an agent but proved something of a bust as the producer of a hoax. He mailed fake letters to himself and paid two Nigerian men $3500, by check, to pour bleach on him, string a noose around his neck and shout racist and homophobic slurs while proclaiming “this is MAGA country.”

This caper recalled the Monty Python sketch about Stig O’Tracy (Eric Idle) who furiously denied that the notorious Dinsdale Piranha nailed his head to the floor. Informed that the police had film footage of the gangster nailing his head to the floor, O’Tracy concedes, “Well he had to, didn’t he? I mean there was nothing else he could do, be fair. I mean, he didn’t want to nail my head to the floor. I had to insist. He wanted to let me off.”

In similar style, the police had ample evidence that Smollett faked the whole thing but the office of Illinois state attorney Kim Foxx sealed the records and dropped 16 felony charges. Smollett then proclaimed “I have been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one.” For the actor and his defenders, he was still an innocent victim.

That recalls the scene from The Godfather, in which Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) confronts Carlo, who played out a “farce” with Michael’s sister that led to the murder of Sonny. Michael was not fooled.

“Don’t tell me you are innocent,” Michael tells Carlo, “because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.”

People across the country are angry that Jussie Smollett will not face trial. Some high-powered lawyer in Washington needs to sit down with George Soros protégé Kim Foxx and POTUS 44 fixer Tina Tchen.