//

Totally not suspicious at all.

These days, if a defendant wants to illegally sway a jury, the easiest way is to just leverage millions of followers on Truth Social. But many criminal defendants don’t have access to social media followers literally willing to storm into the Capitol. What are those folks supposed to do?

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According to a juror recently dismissed from a high-profile criminal case in Minnesota, the answer is drive a giant bag full of money up to the house, which is how you’d describe jury tampering in a children’s cartoon more than real life.

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The Feeding Our Future case alleged a massive, $250 million fraud involving federal, pandemic-related child nutrition funds. According to the DOJ, the organization’s name worked a little fast and loose with its name, telling the world the relevant “our future” meant “hungry children” when it mostly meant “the staff’s luxury cars.” The first trial dealing with the scheme convicted 5 of the 7 defendants.

But not before some drama, per the Minnesota Reformer:

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With the jury out of the courtroom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in open court that a woman in a Mazda drove to the juror’s home in Spring Lake Park, left a bag of cash with her father-in-law and said “there’ll be another bag tomorrow” if she voted to acquit the seven defendants.

A Mazda? Maybe all those purloined funds could’ve been used on nicer cars. Anyway, the juror told the FBI once she got home.

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Handing out big bags of cash is bad. But, on the other hand, the folks behind the alleged bribe didn’t try to record it as a legal expense.

So there’s that!

Juror in Feeding Our Future case excused after being offered bags of cash to acquit [Minnesota Reformer]

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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Courts, Crime, Jury Duty