Roger Stone, former Trump campaign advisor, right, inside the Rayburn House Office Building, ahead of a House Judiciary Hearing with testimony from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, on Tuesday, December 11, 2018.

Roger Stone will not get a new trial over allegations of misconduct by the foreperson for his jury, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Thursday.

In an 81-page opinion, Jackson said Stone's motion requesting a new trial "is a tower of indignation, but at the end of the day, there is little of substance holding it up."

"The assumption underlying the motion—that one can infer from the juror's opinions about the president that she could not fairly consider the evidence against the defendant—is not supported by any facts or data and it is contrary to controlling legal precedent," she wrote.

The motion for another trial hinged on social media posts made by the foreperson on Stone's jury, with Stone's legal team asserting she had made false statements on her juror questionnaire.

Jackson on Thursday rejected those claims, saying the juror's posts—which related more to President Donald Trump than to Stone—did not necessarily make her unfit to sit on the jury.

And she noted that Stone's lawyers had the juror's name ahead of jury selection and could have done research on her then, or asked additional questions that could have revealed further information, but did neither. 

"The information in the motion could have easily been found with the exercise of due diligence: by posing a few pointed follow-up questions in person, or by using the same search engines that quickly brought the public social media posts to light the day the juror identified herself to the rest of the world," the judge wrote. "The evidence the defense claims was critical was never 'concealed'—it was a few clicks of a mouse away."

She further rejected Stone's lawyers claims that any anti-Trump remarks by the juror are implicitly anti-Stone, as the two men are longtime associates.

The judge wrote that "linking them together in a sentence does not make them one and the same; there is zero evidence of 'explicit bias' against Stone, and defendant's attempts to gain a new trial based on implied or inferred bias fail."

In a footnote, Jackson said Stone's defense team's "rhetoric on this point is hardly justified, and it is often unmoored from the facts." She noted they had pointed to a photo of the juror with Democratic official Donna Brazile, taken in 2008, as evidence of the bias.

"But the photo was posted in 2008, eleven years before the Stone trial, eight years before there was an Office of Special Counsel, and seven years before Donald Trump had even entered the race to be the 2016 Republican nominee," Jackson wrote.

The allegations that foreperson Tomeka Hart—a former Democratic congressional candidate who revealed on social media that she was on the jury—was biased against Stone due to negative social media posts about Trump were repeated by the president himself.

That level of attention directed at an otherwise private individual sparked major safety concerns by Jackson, who banned anyone from using the jurors' names or numbers during a hearing on the motion for a new trial held in late February.

The jurors, including Hart, filed declarations Wednesday over a petition seeking the release of their jury questionnaires. They all sought to keep the information private, with some, including Hart, saying they have been threatened and others claiming fear of harassment.

Stone's attorneys argued during the proceedings that Hart lied in filling out a questionnaire used to whittle down the prospective jury pool. Lawyer Seth Ginsberg, a recent addition to the defense team, said Hart lied about whether she had opinions about Trump and about making social media posts about Stone.

Jackson pointed out during the hearing that Hart wrote in the questionnaire that she did have opinions about "officials" on a list of individuals listed as potentially coming up during the trial, which included Trump.

Hart also wrote on the questionnaire that she may have posted about Stone on social media, but that she didn't recall.

"I was trying to be honest," the foreperson testified. "I post and tweet a lot of stuff, I absolutely was not trying to downplay anything."

The ruling opens the door for Stone and his attorneys to take their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In sentencing Stone to 40 months in prison—a penalty she handed down before ruling on the motion for a new trial—Jackson agreed to a two week period between Thursday's order and when Stone has to report to prison.

Jackson on Thursday also lifted a gag order that Stone has been under since nearly the start of proceedings in his case.

She previously has allowed Stone to travel after his sentencing, to Akron, Ohio in March for the birth of his first great-grandchild.

Trump has already suggested on social media that he could pardon Stone. But the president has also indicated that he believed his longtime associate would be cleared during the court proceedings, even as he continued to attack the foreperson and Jackson.

 

Read more:

Roger Stone Jurors, Citing Trump Tweets, Say They've Been Threatened and Fear Harassment

Trump Tweets, Hidden Jurors and 'Public Enemy' Lyrics: Roger Stone's Bid for a New Trial Marches On

At Roger Stone's Sentencing, an Apology From the Justice Department

'Flagrant Disregard for the Institutions of Government': Roger Stone Sentenced to Over 3 Years in Prison

Roger Stone Is Guilty of All Counts, Says DC Jury