Tomeka Hart served as the foreperson on the jury that convicted former Trump associate Roger Stone in his trial for lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering related to the 2016 presidential campaign. The
former Memphis City Schools board president and ex-president and CEO of
the Memphis Urban League, garnered national attention in February when
President Trump tweeted that she showed “significant bias” after she
defended four Justice Department prosecutors who abruptly stepped down
when senior Justice Department officials intervened and lowered their
sentencing recommendation for Stone. “Now it looks like the fore
person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias,”
Trump tweeted Feb. 13. “Add that to everything else, and this is not
looking good for the “Justice” Department.” After Stone was
sentenced to 40 months on Feb. 20, President Trump told an audience in
Las Vegas that Stone had a good chance of being exonerated -- and again
criticized Hart. “It’s my strong opinion that the forewoman of the
jury, the woman who was in charge of the jury, is totally tainted,"
Trump said. "When you take a look, how can you have a person like this?
She was an anti-Trump activist. Can you imagine this?”
"It’s my strong opinion that the forewoman of the jury, the woman who was in charge of the jury, is totally tainted." — President Trump
"This
is a woman who was an anti-Trump person, totally," the president said
later. " .. She had a horrible social media account. The things she said
on the account were unbelievable. She didn't reveal that when she was
chosen." TRUMP SAYS ROGER STONE HAS 'VERY GOOD CHANCE OF EXONERATION' IN LAS VEGAS "I
assume they asked her a question, 'Do you have any bias?' She didn't
say that, so is that an undermining of the court? You tell me." Previously,
after the prosecutors in the Stone case stepped down, Hart posted
on Facebook that she couldn’t “keep quiet any longer." "I want to
stand up for Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed, Michael Marando, and Jonathan
Kravis -- the prosecutors on the Roger Stone trial," Hart wrote in the
post. "It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard work of
the prosecutors. They acted with the utmost intelligence, integrity, and
respect for our system of justice." ROGER STONE JURY FOREPERSON'S ANTI-TRUMP SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS SURFACE AFTER SHE DEFENDS DOJ PROSECUTORS
Tomeka Hart, forewoman in the Roger Stone trial, has been a vocal critic of President Trump. (Facebook)
"As foreperson, I made sure we went through every
element, of every charge, matching the evidence presented in the case
that led us to return a conviction of guilty on all 7 counts." Hart's history of anti-Trump social media posts has included calling Trump supporters "racist" and quoting someone who referred to Trump as the “#KlanPresident." Fellow
juror Seth Cousins defended their guilty verdict against Stone and said
Hart was “perhaps the strongest advocate in the room for a rigorous
process for the rights of the defendant and for making sure that we took
it seriously and looked at each charge," according to USA Today. Hart,
now based in Washington, D.C., is a senior program officer for the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation and has donated to Democrats, including
Sen. Kamala Harris and former Obama Cabinet member Julian Castro,
according to Heavy. In 2012, she unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Tennessee as a Democrat. She
is also a former VP of strategic partnerships at the Southern Education
Foundation, VP of African American community partnerships for Teach For
America, and the president/CEO of the Memphis Urban League, according
to her biography. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP She previously worked as a middle and high school teacher and was a former labor lawyer.
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