Roger Stone speaks at the American Priority Conference in Washington Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Judge Amy Berman Jackson had a hearing today on Roger Stone’s motion for a new trial based on alleged juror bias.
During the sentencing for Stone last week, the judge went political, claiming that Stone had been “covering up for the president,” a claim that was never made by the prosecution and was not supported by the facts. The Mueller report debunked the claim that there was any collusion between the Trump team and Russia.
The judge again went political during the hearing today, attacking both the president and Tucker Carlson for talking about the bias of the jury foreperson, Tomeka Hart.
Carlson pointed out the some of the examples of Hart’s alleged bias, including that she made multiple posts about the Mueller investigation and against Trump, posting a tweet that referred to him as the “Klan President” and claiming that his supporters were racists. Many had criticized the nature of the FBI’s arrest of Stone, arriving at his home with guns drawn at 6 a.m. Hart retweeted a post mocking the criticism of the excessive nature of the arrest. She also posted a “fist bump” emoji on the morning of the Stone’s conviction.
Trump has said Hart tainted the jury pool.
Now it looks like the fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias. Add that to everything else, and this is not looking good for the “Justice” Department. @foxandfriends @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2020
Stone’s attorneys believe that bias should have disqualified her and that she was not forthcoming in answering questions of the court as to her views.
The judge blasted both Carlson and the president, claiming they were invading the privacy of the juror.
“Tucker Carlson accused the foreperson of the jury of being an anti-Trump zealot,” Jackson said, according to reporters at the hearing. “Any attempts to invade the privacy of the jurors or to harass or intimidate them is completely antithetical to our system of justice.”
“This is indisputably a highly publicized case in which the president himself shone a spotlight on the jury,” she continued, according to The Washington Post. “The risk of harassment and intimidation of any jurors who may testify in the hearing later today is is extremely high, and individually who may be angry about Mr. Stone’s conviction may chose to take it out on them personally.”
But that’s a false claim on behalf of the judge because it was the juror herself who identified herself when she went on CNN to support the line prosecutors over their tougher sentence recommendation as to Stone. The DOJ later pulled that back, saying that wasn’t the sentence they had been given to believe would be recommended and calling it excessive. The juror outed herself, it wasn’t Carlson or Trump who did so.
Moreover what do their remarks have to do with anything? Carlson has every right to talk about the juror’s bias, as did multiple media outlets including RedState.
Once again, it’s the judge who appears to be more concerned about politics with such comments than about the problems extant on her own jury.
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