Jussie Smollett

            Jessie Smollett, former actor in “Empire” may be in hot water again. A few months ago

he reported that he was the victim of a “homophobic and racially motivated assault.” After an extensive investigation of the alleged hate crime, Chicago police found that his details did not hold up. They eventually came to the conclusion that Smollett hired two associates to stage the alleged attack. In March he was charged with 16 felony accounts after allegedly lying to police.

            A couple of weeks later the police were informed that the prosecutor had dropped all 16 charges and sealed the Smollett case file. It looked like Smollett was going to walk away as a free man even though he did forfeit his $10,000 bond.

            Needless to say, the police union was upset to discover that their personnel had been involved in a long investigation and were left holding the bags for the costs of it. Several media outlets did not like the idea of the case file being sealed and demanded that the records be unsealed. The arguments went back and forth, but the records remained sealed – until today.    

       

            Today Cook County Circuit Court Judge Steven G. Watkins ordered the Smollett file to “be unsealed and the details of his case made available to the public.” Smollett, of course, fought the unsealing, but the judge seems adamant.

“To be sure, it is easily conceivable that a defendant whose case was dismissed would wish to maintain his sense of privacy, even if, perhaps especially if, the media covered the case,” Watkins wrote in his ruling. “However, that isn’t [the] case.”

“While the court appreciates that the defendant was in the public eye before the events that precipitated this case, it was not necessary for him to address this so publicly and to such an extent. By doing so, the court cannot credit his privacy interest as good cause to keep the case records sealed,” Watkins added.

“These are not the actions of a person seeking to maintain his privacy or simply to be let alone,” Watkins wrote, referring to the multiple media appearances and interviews given by Smollett and his attorneys, according to the Chicago Tribune, which was one of the outlets represented in the suit.

At another point in the 10-page decision, Watkins wrote in reference to Smollett’s search for publicity as opposed to his claim of wanting privacy: “[Smollett] voluntarily stood in front of cameras from numerous news organizations in the courthouse lobby and spoke about the case.”

            It appears that Smollett just could not help himself and had to tell the world. However, his blabbing is causing problems for other people. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who dropped the charges, “is facing problems of her own with regard to the Smollett case, which most likely won’t be helped one bit by the unsealing of his case file.”  However, there is someone else involved in the case who is running from a subpoena.

            Chicago lawyer Tina Tchen, former chief of staff for Michelle Obama, refused to accept a subpoena from another judge. Former Illinois Appellate Judge Sheila O’Brien sent a subpoena to Tchen with an order to appear in court on May 31. This judge is investigating Tchen’s communications with Kim Foxx regarding the Smollett case. The judge wants “any and all documents, notes, phone records, texts, tape recordings made or received at any time, concerning [Tchen’s] conversations with Kim Foxx in re: Jussie Smollett.” 

            Monica Showalter wants to know why Tchen is so nervous about the Smollett case and why she would not accept the subpoena. 

Slink, slink, hide, hide, gotta get away from those process servers, who are staking themselves out behind every bush like repo men. I know what this is like from the process server end: in San Francisco in the 1980s, I actually used to be a process server. People like Tchen to us, were colloquially known as “dirtbags” because they wouldn’t take their papers, but they never did get away with not eventually getting their papers. They just wasted our time.  

            The whole case seems so suspicious – from the fake crime to the dropping of the charges to the sealing of the case file. Something is wrong, and at least two judges are noticing. I wonder what sort of garbage will come out now. How far up the Democrat line will the problem go? With Tchen being the former chief of staff for Michelle Obama, is Obama involved also?