A juror who helped convict Roger Stone denied that the jury’s decision was based on politics.
Seth Cousins, who was juror No. 3 in the nearly weeklong trial, wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post that he has been “taken aback by the accounts of pundits and politicians that our decision was somehow the product of a deeply polarized, partisan divide.”
Stone, a former Trump associate, was found guilty of impeding a House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Republican operative faces up to 50 years in prison for lying to Congress, obstructing an investigation, and intimidating a witness.
The jury determined that Stone, 67, repeatedly lied about his attempt during the 2016 presidential campaign to collaborate with WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange to obtain stolen emails and dirt on President Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton.
“Let me be clear: We did not convict Stone based on his political beliefs or his expression of those beliefs. We did not convict him of being intemperate or acting boorishly,” Cousins, 51, wrote.
“The evidence in this case was substantial and almost entirely uncontested,” he wrote. “Both the prosecution and defense agreed on the facts. The real dispute was whether Stone had lied under oath and whether that mattered. The defense offered by Stone’s attorney can be summed up in to two words: So what? Our unanimous conclusion was this: The truth matters. Telling the truth under oath matters.”
Cousins revealed that the jury came close to rejecting one of the seven charges against Stone “that we believed was written ambiguously.” They spent nearly four hours deliberating the single charge, he said.
“I am proud that we took Roger Stone’s rights seriously and that we treated the government’s assertions skeptically. I am proud of my fellow jurors for respecting each other and for challenging each other until we were all convinced beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
