CHAT COMMENTS
Roger Stone exits federal court Washington, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. Stone, longtime friend of President Donald Trump, has been found guilty at his trial in federal court in Washington. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Andrew Napolitano, who is hardly a cheerleader for Team Trump, told Tucker Carlson Thursday evening that Tomeka Hart, the woman who served as foreperson on the jury during Roger Stone's trial, could face jail time if it's determined she lied about her bias when she was selected to serve on the jury.
Stone was convicted of seven counts of making false statements, witness tampering and obstruction, but Hart, a former Democratic congressional candidate, is rabidly anti-Trump and had no business being on the jury, let alone foreperson.
“Is it your view a problem that the foreman of the jury in Roger Stone’s trial turned out to be a former Democratic congressional candidate who attacked Trump on Twitter and mocked concern, I think most critically, about the FBI raid on Stone’s house?" Tucker Carlson asked Napolitano. "Why was someone like this allowed to remain on the jury?”
“This is information that she must have hidden from the lawyers and the judge who interrogated her before she was put on the jury,” Napolitano told Tucker before explaining that jurors would have been interrogated prior to selection because it was a federal case. “The lawyers sign off ahead of time on the questions the judges are going to ask. The purpose of the interrogation is to weed out people who have a bias, prejudice, and knowledge of the case or interest in the outcome,” Napolitano said.
“She obviously had a prejudice against Roger Stone, a bias in favor of his prosecution, and an interest in seeing him convicted.”
Napolitano believes that Tomeka Hart needs to be brought back into the courtroom "in the presence of Roger Stone and his lawyers and in the presence of the four prosecutors who have since resigned because their resignations are not effective until she, the trial judge, accepts them and interrogate this woman in order to determine whether the bias influenced her guilty vote and whether that bias was passed on to other members of the jury.”
If it's determined that Hart lied in order to get on the jury, she could be prosecuted for perjury and serve jail time, and result in Stone's conviction being overturned. A new trial would certainly be possible as well, but that is, of course, if the government would want to try Stone a second time.
Tomeka Hart's Twitter page, which hasn't been active since November 2019, is full of anti-Trump tweets and links. It's obvious this woman was a hardcore partisan who was set on convicting Stone and lied in order to get on the jury to ensure that happened.