Roger Stone denied retrial, judge says forewoman's anti-Trump comments don't prove bias

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone’s motion for a new trial was denied Thursday, after a federal judge said his legal team failed to prove a juror in the case was bias.

The request for a retrial was based on the argument that the jury forewoman, Tomeka Hart, a former Memphis City Schools Board president, failed to disclose to the court her political opinions and views when being screened to become a juror.

"The defendant has not shown that the juror lied; nor has he shown that the supposedly disqualifying evidence could not have been found through the exercise of due diligence at the time the jury was selected," wrote presiding U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.  

Hart has a history of social media posts showing her Democratic activism and criticism of President Trump, according to Fox News.

"Moreover, while the social media communications may suggest that the juror has strong opinions about certain people or issues, they do not reveal that she had an opinion about Roger Stone, which is the opinion that matters," the judge also wrote. 

Stone was sentenced in February to three years in prison. A jury in November 2019 convicted him on several federal charges including lying under oath to a congressional committee and threatening a witness.