New York Post

Peering in on the jury

- Richard Johnson rjohnson@nypost.com @HeadlineJo­hnson

THE federal grand jury handing down indictment­s for special counsel

Robert Mueller doesn’t appear to include any supporters of President

Trump, according to one witness who recently testified before the panel.

“The grand jury room looks like a Bernie Sanders rally,” my source said. “Maybe they found these jurors in central casting, or at a Black Lives Matter rally in Berkeley[, Calif.]”

Of the 20 jurors, 11 are African-Americans and two were wearing “peace T-shirts,” the witness said. “There was only one white male in the room, and he was a prosecutor.” Mueller was not present. The Washington, DC, grand jury, which meets only on Fridays, handed down its first indictment­s in October, charging Paul Manafort (inset), Trump’s former campaign chairman, and his partner Rick Gates with money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents. The two are pleading not guilty. Mueller’s team is ex-

pected to bring more charges against Manafort relating to his work on behalf of the Ukrainian government in the years before Trump became a candidate.

Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge in New York, once called for abolishing grand juries because they are so easily manipulate­d that they would “indict a ham sandwich.”

My source said, “That room isn’t a room where POTUS gets a fair shake.”

 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States