Politico senior reporter Darren Samuelsohn live-tweeted the Roger Stone hearings Tuesday from a federal courthouse in Washington. As you probably heard, the jury foreperson outed herself on Facebook after the entire prosecutorial team left the case in protest of new sentencing guidelines, saying she “couldn’t keep quiet any longer.” That led CNN to publish her name, and it wasn’t long before people were combing through her social media posts, and there sure was a lot of anti-Trump material in there for someone who promised she could be an impartial juror. President Trump even tweeted about it:
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
The jury foreman in Roger Stone’s case was a left-wing Russia collusion hoax truther who posted anti-Trump propaganda on social media *during the trial* and previously ran for office as a Democrat. The judge in the case gagged Stone, but not the jury. https://t.co/K4MKesLWwN
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 13, 2020
Stone’s attorneys have made a motion for there to be a new trial, and the judge heard arguments Tuesday. We won’t publish the entire thread (it was a long day), but we’ll make sure to get the best bits in here:
Good rainy morning from the federal courthouse in Washington. A couple cable TV cameras are on stakeout for the Roger Stone hearings on his motion for a new trial. Things get started at 1:30 pm before Judge Jackson – a public hearing on whether the 2 pm hearing should be open. pic.twitter.com/5DvMK7Spet
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
We're about 10 minutes from the start of the first of two Roger Stone hearings – this one is in open court whether the next one should be public. Stone is at the defense table surrounded by his legal team: Robert Buschel, Seth Ginsberg, Grant Smith, Tara Campion & Bruce Rogow.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
The second hearing is on Stone's motion for a new trial. While the filing is under seal we know from the title of the document and comments from the president and many others that it's about the conduct of the jury foreperson.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
The jury foreperson is being called in now to deal with Stone's request for a hearing on whether she gave inaccurate information about how she responded to the jury questionnaire.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
The issue centers around how the foreperson answered this particular question from the jury questionnaire filled out prior to the trial. Note: This is the blank version that is on the public docket. pic.twitter.com/CYsY5Ex2si
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
“Have you written or posted anything for public consumption about the defendant, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, or the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller?”
Jury foreperson being sworn in now.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Jackson questioning jury foreperson on her use of Facebook, Twitter and the privacy settings she was using — stretching from last September through February.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Jury foreperson says her settings on FB and Twitter were public in Sept 2019. After the trial ended on Nov. 15 she shut down her social media posts for two weeks. When she came back on after Thanksgiving she switched to 'friends only' for her settings.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Asked by Judge Jackson if she deleted any social media posts between September when she filled out the jury questionnaire and voir dire on Nov. 5, the jury foreperson replied, "Absolutely not."
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
The jury foreperson testifies she followed the court's instructions and didn't read anything connected to the trial while it was happening.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
"No, absolutely not," the jury foreperson responds when asked if she looked at Twitter during the Stone trial.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Jury foreperson being asked about her Jan 25, 2019, tweet sharing an NPR article about the Stone arrest and her comment, "Brought to you by the lock her up peanut gallery." She explains she posted that on Twitter, not Facebook.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
"Did you read the whole thing before posting?" Judge Jackson asks of the NPR article. She replies, "I don't remember. Probably, though."
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
The jury foreperson confirms she did write the 'Brought to you by the lock her up peanut gallery' comment.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Judge Jackson stops Ginsberg's questioning. Asking him why he's asking about tweets from prior to Stone's arrest. Ginsberg replies that he's trying to move quickly through them. "It does paint a certain picture," the Stone lawyer says,.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Ginsberg ticking through a series of posts that the Stone team has found from her FB/Twitter feeds critical of Trump starting in Feb 2019, asking her to confirm she posted each one. The foreperson says yes to each.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Asked what she knew about Stone before the trial, the jury foreperson replies her thinking was that he'd been arrested for the Russia probe. "I knew nothing about him other than that," she said.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Jury foreperson confirms she did post about the Trump impeachment and the focus on "quid pro quo" during the trial.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Ginsberg asking the jury foreperson to explain the fist bump emojis she used in a 3:14 AM post from Nov. 15, early of the morning before the guilty verdict. Asked by the Stone lawyer if it was a sign of 'solidarity,' she confirms that it was.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
Ginsberg asks the jury foreperson to explain her answer again in the jury questionnaire about why she replied that she couldn't recall writing or posting anything more than sharing "an article" about HPSCI or the Mueller probe.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
She replies, "That was the honest answer on Sept 12. It is why I didn't check yes or no because I didn't want to appear deceptive. I was giving the best answer I could." She said she read that specific question to mean she should reply "in terms of Roger Stone."
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
The jury foreperson also said before she was excused that she stands by her response to how she answered the question with respect to her past posts, insisting she was thinking about it in the context of Roger Stone.
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) February 25, 2020
That’s it for today.
Related:
Don't look now, but the Roger Stone story just got worse for the DOJ. A whole LOT WORSE! https://t.co/qvXiP9zmHJ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 13, 2020
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