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Full Version: The foreperson on the Stone jury, Tomeka Hart, had significant political bias
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It seems there may have been strong political bias here - if you are to believe her own highly emotional words. A long history of political tweets and Facebook posts labeling Trump, his supporters, and Stone, as racist, both before the trial and during it.
Wow, she must have lied getting onto that jury.
Hart even posted specifically about the Stone case before she voted to convict, as she retweeted an argument mocking those who considered Stone's dramatic arrest in a predawn raid by a federal tactical team to be excessive force. She also suggested President Trump and his supporters are racist and praised the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which ultimately led to Stone's prosecution.

Meanwhile, it emerged that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had denied a defense request to strike a potential juror who was Obama-era press official with admitted anti-Trump views -- and whose husband worked at the same Justice Department division that handled the probe leading to Stone's arrest. And, another Stone juror, Seth Cousins, donated to former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and other progressive causes, federal election records reviewed by Fox News show.
And, on Nov. 15, 2019 -- the day she voted to convict Stone on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress -- Hart tweeted two "heart" emojis, followed by two pump-fist emojis. (None of Stone's charges accused him of engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russia or any other actors concerning election interference; instead, his offenses related to his statements concerning his contacts with WikiLeaks and others.)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/roger-s...cial-media
Nothing new to those of us living in Memphis. She's always been a clown.
I hope that after the election, Trump just pardons everyone Flynn, Page, Stone, Manafort etc. Clear wrongdoing on the part of the Mueller team. Plus it will make liberal heads explode.
Seems like this should be easily thrown out on appeal then. I'm not familiar with jury selection, does the defense not get enough time to do background on the prospective jurors?
(02-13-2020 09:14 AM)fsquid Wrote: [ -> ]Seems like this should be easily thrown out on appeal then. I'm not familiar with jury selection, does the defense not get enough time to do background on the prospective jurors?

They generally don't do an FBI level background.

This does seem like something that should be thrown out on appeal. And removed from the judge.
(02-13-2020 08:47 AM)TigersOhMy Wrote: [ -> ]Nothing new to those of us living in Memphis. She's always been a clown.

Incompetent, racist hack
(02-13-2020 09:12 AM)Jugnaut Wrote: [ -> ]I hope that after the election, Trump just pardons everyone Flynn, Page, Stone, Manafort etc. Clear wrongdoing on the part of the Mueller team. Plus it will make liberal heads explode.

absolutely
(02-13-2020 09:14 AM)fsquid Wrote: [ -> ]Seems like this should be easily thrown out on appeal then. I'm not familiar with jury selection, does the defense not get enough time to do background on the prospective jurors?

They did object. The obama hack bitche judge told them to frick off.

Rumor is Jennifer Palmieri was also a juror

Third world banana republic shite if true.

Thanks obama
(02-13-2020 09:41 AM)shere khan Wrote: [ -> ]
(02-13-2020 09:14 AM)fsquid Wrote: [ -> ]Seems like this should be easily thrown out on appeal then. I'm not familiar with jury selection, does the defense not get enough time to do background on the prospective jurors?

They did object. The obama hack bitche judge told them to frick off.

Rumor is Jennifer Palmieri was also a juror

Third world banana republic shite if true.

Thanks obama

There needs to be an investigation of the pulling of jury pools for the week of the Stone trial. This is no coincidence. This is "hitting the power ball" type of odds that it would happen that all of these useful idiots ended up at this trial.
(02-13-2020 09:41 AM)shere khan Wrote: [ -> ]
(02-13-2020 09:14 AM)fsquid Wrote: [ -> ]Seems like this should be easily thrown out on appeal then. I'm not familiar with jury selection, does the defense not get enough time to do background on the prospective jurors?

They did object. The obama hack bitche judge told them to frick off.

Rumor is Jennifer Palmieri was also a juror

Third world banana republic shite if true.

Thanks obama

sounds like an easy appeal
(02-13-2020 09:16 AM)bullet Wrote: [ -> ]
(02-13-2020 09:14 AM)fsquid Wrote: [ -> ]Seems like this should be easily thrown out on appeal then. I'm not familiar with jury selection, does the defense not get enough time to do background on the prospective jurors?

They generally don't do an FBI level background.

This does seem like something that should be thrown out on appeal. And removed from the judge.

seems like the social media posts could be discovered just by using a search engine though.
This is the commercial appeal's take;

"This morning, taking his cues from Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends," President Donald Trump took aim at the head juror in the trial of Trump-whisperer Roger Stone.

And that foreperson — whom he accused of having "significant bias" — was none other than former Memphis City School board chairwoman and Democrat Tomeka Hart.


Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
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

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6:57 AM - Feb 13, 2020
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Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump
Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump (Photo: Getty)

A little background: A Hart-led jury last year found Stone guilty of seven felonies related to his attempts to derail the Mueller investigation: five counts of making false statements to Congress, one count of obstruction of Congress, and one count of witness tampering. The evidence was clear and overwhelming, and including messages — "prepare to die, c—sucker," one read — that showed Stone threatened associates to cover up his lies.

This week, the four prosecutors on the case asked a judge to give Stone a seven- to nine-year sentence for his misdeeds. Whether that's fair is debatable — but whether Trump should turn up pressure to let an ex-compatriot off the hook shouldn't be. But that's what Trump did, tweeting that the recommendation was a "miscarriage of justice."
(02-13-2020 10:59 AM)JerryJeff Wrote: [ -> ]This is the commercial appeal's take;

"This morning, taking his cues from Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends," President Donald Trump took aim at the head juror in the trial of Trump-whisperer Roger Stone.

And that foreperson — whom he accused of having "significant bias" — was none other than former Memphis City School board chairwoman and Democrat Tomeka Hart.


Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
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

45.8K
6:57 AM - Feb 13, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
20.3K people are talking about this
Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump
Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump (Photo: Getty)

A little background: A Hart-led jury last year found Stone guilty of seven felonies related to his attempts to derail the Mueller investigation: five counts of making false statements to Congress, one count of obstruction of Congress, and one count of witness tampering. The evidence was clear and overwhelming, and including messages — "prepare to die, c—sucker," one read — that showed Stone threatened associates to cover up his lies.

This week, the four prosecutors on the case asked a judge to give Stone a seven- to nine-year sentence for his misdeeds. Whether that's fair is debatable — but whether Trump should turn up pressure to let an ex-compatriot off the hook shouldn't be. But that's what Trump did, tweeting that the recommendation was a "miscarriage of justice."

I'm sure the CA loves her. 03-lmfao

What an embarrassment. Good job Memphis
I didn't clip the bottom of the article. This is the comedy gold.

Memphis' joke of a "news" paper

Quote:Then the Department of Justice disavowed the recommendation of prosecutors, raising questions about whether Trump's administration was pulling the strings to reduce the sentence for his old adviser — suspicions Trump all but confirmed on Twitter:


Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress!

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5:53 AM - Feb 12, 2020
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Seeing where this was going, a jury member, Seth Cousins, pushed back in a Washington Post op-ed last year against the idea Stone was convicted because of anything other than his crimes, and even said his "favorite person" on the jury was "an African American woman from Tennessee." That is, Memphis' own Tomeka Hart.

After Trump questioned whether the prosecutors had gone "rogue," Hart spoke out in their defense, saying the acted with the "utmost intelligence, integrity, and respect for our system of justice." Read her full statement in our story by Laura Testino.


So, that brings us to this morning. Hart is a well-known — and well-respected — local Democrat, who ran for Congress in 2012 and has tweeted extensively about her misgivings with Team Trump, including calling him and his supporters "racists" in an August 2019 tweet. If the defense found her objectionable, they should have objected.

But there's no evidence — absolutely zero — that her politics tainted the jury's verdict.
It appears Hart has gone back and deleted posts, especially on Facebook. I have to wonder why. Just asking.
(02-13-2020 11:04 AM)shere khan Wrote: [ -> ]
(02-13-2020 10:59 AM)JerryJeff Wrote: [ -> ]This is the commercial appeal's take;

"This morning, taking his cues from Fox News morning show "Fox & Friends," President Donald Trump took aim at the head juror in the trial of Trump-whisperer Roger Stone.

And that foreperson — whom he accused of having "significant bias" — was none other than former Memphis City School board chairwoman and Democrat Tomeka Hart.


Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
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

45.8K
6:57 AM - Feb 13, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
20.3K people are talking about this
Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump
Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump (Photo: Getty)

A little background: A Hart-led jury last year found Stone guilty of seven felonies related to his attempts to derail the Mueller investigation: five counts of making false statements to Congress, one count of obstruction of Congress, and one count of witness tampering. The evidence was clear and overwhelming, and including messages — "prepare to die, c—sucker," one read — that showed Stone threatened associates to cover up his lies.

This week, the four prosecutors on the case asked a judge to give Stone a seven- to nine-year sentence for his misdeeds. Whether that's fair is debatable — but whether Trump should turn up pressure to let an ex-compatriot off the hook shouldn't be. But that's what Trump did, tweeting that the recommendation was a "miscarriage of justice."

I'm sure the CA loves her. 03-lmfao

What an embarrassment. Good job Memphis

i believe the CA is published out of Nashville now..... isn't it?
The CA is a liberal rag. Doesn't matter where it's published, it's the Memphis paper.
Quote:When Tomeka Hart was interviewed during the jury selection process as part of the Roger Stone trial, the former Democratic congressional candidate said she was generally aware of developments in the Russia investigation, but that she didn’t “pay that close attention” to the probe.

She also insisted that Stone’s affiliation with President Donald Trump would “absolutely not” color her views of the longtime Trump confidante, according to a copy of a court transcript obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

But Hart’s social media record, which emerged Wednesday after she came forward as the foreperson on Stone’s jury, paints a different picture.

Hart’s Twitter account shows that she tweeted frequently about developments in the special counsel’s investigation, typically stories that were negative for Trump. She was also intensely critical of Trump and his followers.

In one Aug. 19, 2017 post, Hart referred to Trump as the “#KlanPresident,” an apparent reference to the Ku Klux Klan.

[Image: Screen-Shot-2020-02-13-at-9.53.49-AM.jpg]

In another, Hart asserted that all Trump supporters are racist.

“Then stop being racists. Co-signing and defending a racist and his racist rhetoric makes you racist. Point blank,” she wrote on Aug. 2, 2019.

[Image: Screen-Shot-2020-02-13-at-9.08.49-AM.jpg]

Months later, Hart would find herself leading a jury weighing a case against one Trump’s staunchest defenders: Stone. The GOP operative, who has known Trump for four decades, is widely credited with coaxing him to run for president.

Hart outed herself as the lead Stone juror in a Facebook post Wednesday expressing support for four prosecutors who withdrew from the case after the Justice Department revised a proposal that Stone serve up to nine years in prison. The new proposal still calls for “substantial” prison time for the 67-year-old Stone, but said that it should be “far less” than the 87-108 month recommendation.

The Hart-led jury, which deliberated for seven hours, convicted Stone on Nov. 15, 2019 on all seven counts he faced.

Hart was interviewed on Nov. 5, 2019 along with a group of other potential jurors. Hart is not identified by name in the transcript (she is referred to as Juror Number 1261), but the description matches her resume. Hart ran for Congress and also served as the foreperson on a grand jury in Tennessee for two years.

“You’ve also indicated a fair amount of paying attention to news and social media including about political things?” Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked Hart.

“Yes,” she replied.

“And when we asked what you read or heard about the defendant, you do understand that he was involved in Mr. Trump’s campaign in some way?” Jackson asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Is there anything about that that affects your ability to judge him fairly and impartially sitting here right now in this courtroom?” Jackson queried.

“Absolutely not,” Hart answered.

“What is it that you have read or heard about him?” asked Jackson.

“So nothing that I can recall specifically,” Hart replied. “I do watch sometimes paying attention but sometimes in the background CNN.”

“So I recall just hearing about him being part of the campaign and some belief or reporting around interaction with the Russian probe and interaction with him and people in the country, but I don’t have a whole lot of details. I don’t pay that close attention or watch C-SPAN,” she continued.

“Can you kind of wipe the slate clean and learn what you need to learn in this case from the evidence presented in the courtroom and no other source?” Jackson asked, to which Hart responded, “Yes.”

But Hart’s Twitter account suggests that she closely followed the Russia probe and other investigations involving Trump associates.

On Nov. 5, 2017 she tweeted a story about leaked documents purporting to show that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had secret ties to associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On March 3, 2017, she circulated a New Yorker story entitled, “Trump, Putin and the New Cold War.” On March 24, 2019, Hart wrote that Republicans were “ignoring the numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions of people in 45’s inner-circle” that stemmed from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Hart did not comment directly about Stone, whose case stemmed from Mueller’s investigation. But she did retweet a Jan. 30, 2019 post by CNN contributor Bakari Sellers that downplayed conservative criticism of the circumstances of Stone’s arrest.

Conservatives widely condemned the Jan. 25, 2019 FBI raid on Stone’s home in Florida. Sellers dismissed those complaints by listing black Americans who have been killed by police or died while in police custody.

Hart did not respond to emails seeking comment.

It is unclear why Stone’s lawyers did not strike Hart from the jury pool given her political leanings.

The court transcript shows that Stone attorney Robert Buschel pressed Hart about whether she had any future political aspirations.

“I don’t know, not federal,” said Hart, who served on the Memphis, Tennessee, school board before running for Congress.

Judge Jackson interjected during the line of questioning to ask Hart whether Trump or Stone’s political affiliations would change how she weighed evidence at trial.

“Is there anything about his affiliation with the Trump campaign and the Republican party in general that gives you any reason to pause or hesitate or think that you couldn’t fairly evaluate the evidence against him?” Jackson asked.

Hart answered: “No.”

Link

Quote:Former Memphis City Schools Board President Tomeka Hart revealed Wednesday that she was the foreperson of the jury that convicted former Trump adviser Roger Stone on obstruction charges last year -- and soon afterward, her history of Democratic activism and a string of her anti-Trump, left-wing social media posts came to light.

Hart even posted specifically about the Stone case before she voted to convict, as she retweeted an argument mocking those who considered Stone's dramatic arrest in a predawn raid by a federal tactical team to be excessive force. She also suggested President Trump and his supporters are racist and praised the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which ultimately led to Stone's prosecution.

Meanwhile, it emerged that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had denied a defense request to strike a potential juror who was Obama-era press official with admitted anti-Trump views -- and whose husband worked at the same Justice Department division that handled the probe leading to Stone's arrest. And, another Stone juror, Seth Cousins, donated to former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and other progressive causes, federal election records reviewed by Fox News show.

The revelations came as Trump has called the handling of Stone's prosecution "ridiculous" and a demonstrably unfair "insult to our country." They raised the prospect that Stone's team could again seek a new trial, especially if Hart provided inaccurate responses under oath on her pretrial questionnaires concerning social media activity.

The drama began when Hart confirmed to CNN and other media organizations Wednesday that she had written a Facebook post supporting the Justice Department prosecutors in the Stone case who abruptly stepped down from their posts on Tuesday, saying she "can't keep quiet any longer." The prosecutors apparently objected after senior DOJ officials overrode their recommendation to Jackson that Stone face up to 9 years in prison.

"I want to stand up for Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed, Michael Marando, and Jonathan Kravis -- the prosecutors on the Roger Stone trial," Hart wrote in the post. "It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard work of the prosecutors. They acted with the utmost intelligence, integrity, and respect for our system of justice."

Hart added: "As foreperson [of the jury], I made sure we went through every element, of every charge, matching the evidence presented in the case that led us to return a conviction of guilty on all 7 counts."

Independent journalist Mike Cernovich, not CNN, then first reported that a slew of Hart's other publicly available Twitter and Facebook posts readily suggested a strong political bias. Some of Hart's posts were written as Stone's trial was in progress.

Hart, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2012, quoted someone in an August 2017 tweet referring to Trump as a member of the KKK.

In January 2019, she retweeted a post by pundit Bakari Sellers, who noted that "Roger Stone has y'all talking about reviewing use of force guidelines," before suggesting that racism was the reason for all the attention Stone's arrest had received from conservatives.



In August 2019, Hart called all Trump supporters "racist."

"Gotta love it!" Hart wrote on Jan. 13, 2018, in response to a news report that a vulgarity had been projected onto the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.



A week later, on Jan. 21, 2018, she shared an opinion piece entitled, "What’s so extremely, uniquely wrong about Trump’s presidency."

On March 24, 2019, Hart shared a Facebook post saying that Republicans who complained about Mueller's probe were deliberately "ignoring the numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions of people in 45’s inner-circle," referring to Trump.



And, on Nov. 15, 2019 -- the day she voted to convict Stone on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress -- Hart tweeted two "heart" emojis, followed by two pump-fist emojis. (None of Stone's charges accused him of engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russia or any other actors concerning election interference; instead, his offenses related to his statements concerning his contacts with WikiLeaks and others.)

Hart's tweet linked to a Facebook post that has since been taken down from public view.

If Hart have provided misleading answers on her jury form concerning her political or social media activity, her views on Trump and the Russia probe, or other related matters, there could be grounds for Stone's team to seek a new trial, legal experts told Fox News.

Hart did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted that she was a native of the city and had served a term as the president of its school board.



Hart's posts surfaced the same day that Jackson, who oversaw the Stone case, unsealed her order from earlier this month denying Stone's request for a new trial.

Stone's team argued that an unnamed juror had misled the court concerning his or her exposure to the media during the case, and also had some potential bias because of his or her work with the IRS, which sometimes has interfaced with the DOJ on criminal matters.

But, Jackson shot down the motion for a new trial, saying the juror's potential bias was not demonstrated -- and even if it were, it wasn't significant enough to warrant the drastic step of calling for a new trial.

Courts allow for a new trial, Jackson noted, when "a serious miscarriage of justice may have occured." Bias is a permissible reason to remove a juror or call for a new trial only in "extreme situations where the relationship between a prospective juror and some aspect of the litigation is such that it is highly unlikely that the average person could remain impartial in his deliberations under the circumstances."

Jackson, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, also took a shot at Stone's team for failing to uncover the information sooner.



"The defense could have easily conducted the same Internet search included in the instant motion and could have raised concerns at that time," Jackson wrote.

Fox News reported earlier Tuesday that top brass at the DOJ were "shocked" that prosecutors handling the Stone case had recommended Monday night that Jackson sentence the 67-year-old Stone to between 87 and 108 months in prison. The prosecutors asserted in the Monday filing that Stone's conduct post-indictment -- including violating the judge's social media gag orders -- merited a sentence much longer than the 15 to 21 months that the defense said was actually advisable under the federal sentencing guidelines.

In a new, amended filing Tuesday afternoon, the DOJ told Jackson that the government "respectfully submits that a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months' imprisonment would be reasonable under the circumstances," but that the government "ultimately defers to the court as to the specific sentence to be imposed."

Government officials wrote in the amended filing that while it was "technically" possible to argue that Stone deserved the severe federal sentencing enhancement for threatening physical harm to a witness, such a move would violate the spirit of the federal guidelines.

It would place Stone in a category of the guidelines that "typically applies in cases involving violent offenses, such as armed robbery, not obstruction cases," the government argued, noting that Stone's "advanced age, health, personal circumstances, and lack of criminal history" also counseled against the harsh penalty.

Specifically, prosecutors said that although Stone allegedly had threatened witness Randy Credico's therapy dog, Bianca -- saying he was "going to take that dog away from you" -- it was important to recognize that Credico, a New York radio host, has acknowledged that he "never in any way felt that Stone himself posed a direct physical threat to me or my dog."

The government continued, "If the court were not to apply the eight-level enhancement for threatening a witness with physical injury, it would result in the defendant receiving an advisory guidelines range of 37 to 46 months, which as explained below is more in line with the typical sentences imposed in obstruction cases."

A senior DOJ official confirmed to Fox News that senior leadership officials there made the call to reverse the initial sentencing recommendation, saying the filing on Monday evening was not only extreme, but also substantially inconsistent with how the prosecutors had briefed DOJ leadership they would proceed on the case. The "general communication" between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the main DOJ had led senior officials to expect a more moderate sentence, the official told Fox News.

“It's surprising that would be the line in the sand -- an amended filing," a senior DOJ official told Fox News, adding that the problem with the original sentencing recommendation was it told the judge that the only way to serve justice was a lengthy sentence.

“We're backing off from, 'It has to be this,'" the DOJ source told Fox News. “The amended filing says it's a serious crime, and prison time is appropriate; we're just saying it doesn't have to be 87 to 108 months."

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