A federal judge condemned President Trump and conservative media figures for attacking one of the jurors in the case of Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant who was convicted of lying to Congress.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama-era appointee who is presiding over the proceedings in Washington, D.C., said, on Tuesday, their commentary about Tomeka Hart, the foreperson in the Stone trial, could lead to intimidation and harassment.
“Any attempt to harass or intimidate jurors is completely antithetical to our system of justice,” Jackson said after reading one of Trump’s tweets at a hearing as she considers Stone’s request for a retrial and removed the public from the courtroom.
In seeking a retrial, Stone’s lawyers alleged Hart was not an impartial juror due to her past partisan activity. Hart, who was a former Democratic congressional candidate and a program officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, repeatedly shared anti-Trump posts on social media.
Trump suggested Hart had “significant bias” in a tweet earlier this month, a day before Stone requested a new trial. Jackson also cited commentary from conservative and right-wing personalities such as Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who shared Hart’s Twitter handle and called her an “anti-Trump zealot.”
“This is indisputably a highly publicized case in which the president himself shone a spotlight on the jury through his Twitter platform,” Jackson said. “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 choose to take it out on them personally.”
Jackson warned of the chilling effect such tweets would have on people called for jury duty in the future. “This hurts everyone who may depend on their right to a jury trial someday,” she said, adding that “any attempts to invade the privacy of the jurors … or to harass or intimidate them … is antithetical” to American principles.
In an apparent reaction to Jackson’s statement, Trump called the foreperson “tainted” and “totally biased.”
There has rarely been a juror so tainted as the forewoman in the Roger Stone case. Look at her background. She never revealed her hatred of “Trump” and Stone. She was totally biased, as is the judge. Roger wasn’t even working on my campaign. Miscarriage of justice. Sad to watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2020
Over the weekend, Jackson turned down Stone’s attempt to disqualify her. Jackson argued Sunday evening that there is no legal basis as to why she should recuse herself from the case after the GOP operative filed a motion on Friday requesting that she be removed from the case for alleged bias.
Stone’s request came after Jackson sentenced him to over 40 months in prison for witness tampering and lying to Congress. The Justice Department had originally recommended a sentence of seven to nine years but later scaled back the recommendation.
