Judge declines Roger Stone's request for new trial

April 16 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday denied former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone's request for a new trial.

District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone's Nov. 15 "conviction is final."

Stone sought to have the conviction overturned based on the suspected political leanings of one of the jurors on his case. His attorney said jury foreman Tomeka Hart wrote a message online before the sentencing that defended the four prosecutors in the case.

Those attorneys quit the case on Feb. 11 after the Justice Department voided their recommended sentence for Stone -- following criticism from President Donald Trump that said his former adviser was being treated unfairly.

Berman Jackson said defense lawyers failed to show that Hart misrepresented her political leanings.

"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 is a tower of indignation, but at the end of the day, there is little of substance holding it up."

Berman Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison in February after he was convicted on several criminal counts stemming from the Justice Department's Russia investigation. She also gave Stone two years of probation and ordered him to pay $20,000 in fines.

The Trump ally was convicted in November of charges that included lying to Congress, witness tampering and interfering in the House's Russia investigation, which searched for any links between the Trump campaign and Moscow.