Roger Stone’s Attorneys Ask for New Trial Days Before Scheduled Sentencing
LAST-MINUTE MOVE
Roger Stone’s attorneys demanded a new trial in a Friday filing, six days before the longtime confidant of President Trump is slated to be sentenced. According to The Washington Post, the basis for the request and any supporting records were filed under seal and were not available for public viewing. Stone is set to be sentenced on Feb. 20 for lying to Congress and witness tampering. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave prosecutors until Tuesday to respond to the motion.
The move comes one day after President Trump tweeted that the jury forewoman in the Stone case had “significant bias.” The forewoman, Tomeka Hart, identified herself in a Facebook post after the Justice Department said prosecutors’ initial sentencing recommendation for Stone was “excessive.” Hart, an unsuccessful Democratic Congressional candidate and ex-president of the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners, said she couldn't “keep quiet any longer” in the post.