Lawyer who intervened in Jussie Smollett case refuses subpoena

A former top aide to Michelle Obama refused to be served a subpoena Wednesday related to her contact with Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx in the Jussie Smollett case.

The subpoena was issued by former Illinois Appellate Judge Sheila O’Brien as part of her request for a special prosecutor to investigate the Cook County state’s attorney’s handling of Smollett’s criminal case, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

O’Brien wants the former first lady’s one-time chief of staff, Tina Tchen, to produce “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” at a May 31 hearing.

But Tchen wouldn’t accept the subpoena, according to the process server.

Tchen, an attorney in Chicago, intervened in the Smollett case by telling Foxx that a member of the “Empire” star’s family had “concerns” about her office’s probe, the Sun-Times previously reported.

Tchen reached out to Foxx on Feb. 1, three days after Smollett told cops he was the victim of a homophobic and racist beatdown near his apartment.

Foxx then contacted Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, asking him to turn over the probe to the FBI before recusing herself from the case.

Smollett was eventually charged with 16 felony counts alleging that he staged the hoax hate crime — but the charges were abruptly dropped in a surprise move by prosecutors.

Tchen has denied trying to influence the case.

“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,” she said in a March statement. “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.”

Meanwhile, a judge is expected to decide Thursday on whether sealed records in Smollett’s case will be made public, ABC Chicago reported.