Manafort juror: Lone holdout blocked conviction on all counts, prosecutors were "napping"
The first juror in Paul Manafort's trial to speak out says prosecutors almost got the 18 guilty verdicts they wanted. Paula Duncan told Fox News that one juror caused a mistrial on 10 of the charges against the president's former campaign chairman.
In her interview, Duncan said she voted to convict him because the evidence was "overwhelming." She described a taxing and emotional deliberation process and said the discussions brought some jurors to tears.
According to Duncan, she and her peers worked to convince the lone dissenting juror, but ultimately failed to prevent a split verdict Tuesday.
"There was one holdout," Duncan said. "We laid it out in front of her again and again and she still said that she had a reasonable doubt."
Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of committing various financial crimes not related to the campaign. The judge declared a mistrial on the ten other counts. On Twitter, the president called the case a "witch hunt." For Duncan, the facts were clear.
"The evidence was overwhelming. I did not want Paul Manafort to be guilty but he was and no one is above the law," Duncan said.
Duncan, a self-described Trump supporter, says she does believe the trial was an attempt to flip Manafort against the president in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. She also claims at times the prosecution seemed uninterested in the proceedings.
"I saw them napping during the trial….So it kind of sent a message of we're bored with this and I'm thinking, 'well if you're bored then why are we here?'" Duncan said.
Still, she says the process was fair.
"Did you feel like there were jurors who were either like yourself pro-President Trump or anti and that influenced their reasoning in any way?" Fox News' Shannon Bream asked Duncan who replied, "No, I don't."
Duncan also said while a judge placed her name and the names of her peers under seal for safety reasons, she doesn't feel like she's in danger. She said she came forward because she believes it's important that the American people know how the jury reached its final verdict.