Federal prosecutors charged five people on Wednesday in a scheme to throw a fraud trial in Minnesota, after officials said they found a plan to pay off one juror and persuade others to vote for acquittal. Three of those charged were defendants in the federal fraud trial that ended this month, US Attorney Andrew Luger said; the other two were recruited for the scheme. One of the five was acquitted of all the charges in the trial, which concerned the misuse of COVID relief money and the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The plan detailed Wednesday called for paying a juror more than $120,000 and having her win over others by convincing her that prosecutors are racist, NBC News reports.
The Justice Department said the five defendants selected a 23-year-old juror to pressure because she was the youngest and they believed her to be the only juror of color, per CBS News. They followed the woman "day and night," Luger said, to learn more about her. The plan the defendants compiled, he said, called for persuading the woman to lobby other jurors to acquit by arguing the prosecutors are racist. "We are immigrants. They don't respect or care about us," Luger quoted the written plan as saying she should be told. "You alone can end this case."
"This really is an attack on our system of justice," Luger said at a press conference. The cash was dropped off for the juror, who reported it, then was dismissed from the trial. Luger praised her for that, calling it fortunate that "juror 52 could not be bought." The defendants found her home address and other information about her online, officials said. (More jury tampering stories.)
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