Robert Mueller and his team don’t visit the little boys’ room without first phoning it in to the New York Times or the Washington Post. Now they’re concerned that constantly trying their case in the press (while failing to actually produce anything relevant to their counterintelligence investigation in court) may have tainted the jury pool.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team wants to use a written questionnaire to gauge whether “widespread media attention” has biased potential jurors for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s upcoming criminal trial.
“The reporting, at times inaccurately, comments on the nature of the evidence collected in the case or activities of the parties,” Andrew Weissmann, one of Mueller’s lead prosecutors, wrote, noting it had found thousands of references to the investigation in its search of newspaper, television and radio coverage.
“Furthermore, the amount of publicity about this case is only likely to grow as the trial date approaches, and such publicity increases the possibility that jurors will form biases or pre-formed opinions that may prejudice one or both parties,” Weissmann added.
Thousands of references? Really. I can’t imagine why Andy would think that an investigation that exists to validate the conspiracy theories and desire for a coup by Hillary Clinton supporters could possibly lead to jurors forming biases.
If a potential juror checks the yes box, they’re asked to explain what they’ve seen and the “source of that information.”
In other words, this is an effort at screening out FOX News viewers.
“Some of the media accounts question the legitimacy of the Special Counsel’s investigation, tending to advance the opinion that the investigation is ‘tainted’ and therefore its results are suspect. Other media accounts, by contrast, include disparaging descriptions of the defendant,” Weissmann wrote.
Guess which one Andy is really concerned about.
Also, any jurors who remember what happened with Arthur Andersen are really unwelcome.
Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield
