In a last-ditch effort to get a new trial, former President Trump associate Roger Stone filed a motion Friday night to disqualify the federal judge who presided over his case and just sentenced him to more than three years in prison.
In a new motion filed Friday, Stone’s legal team argues that Judge Amy Berman Jackson should be pulled from the case because she made a remark about the “integrity” about the jurors on the case. Stone’s team, and several other conservative conspiracists, including the President, made an outrageous claim that at least one of the jurors on the case was biased against Stone.
“Stone’s motion for new trial is directly related to the integrity of a juror. It is alleged
that a juror misled the court regarding her ability to be unbiased and fair and the juror attempted to cover up evidence that would directly contradict her false claims of impartiality,” the motion said.
The new motion references an exchange between Berman Jackson and Stone lawyers:
“Sure, the defense is free to say, ‘So what? Who cares?’ But I’ll say this: Congress cared,” Berman Jackson said. “The United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia that prosecuted the case and is still prosecuting the case cared. The jurors who served with integrity under difficult circumstances cared. The American people cared. And I care.”
Stone already filed a motion for a new trial before he was sentenced this week, using the debacle in the Justice Department over his sentencing as rationale for scrapping the months-long trial. Friday’s motion appears to be just the latest attempt by Stone to avoid jail time. But as experts pointed out to The Washington Post, it’s possible this is also a bid for a presidential pardon because the move gives fodder to political claims that Berman Jackson was unfair.
Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison for, among other things, lying to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Read the full motion below:
