Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is attempting to disclose the identity of a potential juror for the trial of Trump confidant Roger Stone, who has worked at Jones’ Infowars outlet. Jones attempted to elicit the juror information from Jacob Engels, who often collaborates with Stone.
Stone appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C., today for jury selection as his trial begins over felony charges that allege he lied to Congress about his dealings with WikiLeaks concerning emails hacked by Russia in the 2016 presidential election; obstructed an official proceeding; and intimidated a witness, radio host Randy Credico.
The first step of the trial is interviewing potential jurors, and little progress was made during the first session as Stone began to suffer from food poisoning; after a pool is picked, both prosecution and defense will be able to strike individuals for any reason.
The first potential juror to be interviewed reportedly worked as the communications director at the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) during the Obama administration. During the November 5 broadcast of The Alex Jones Show, Jones and Engels both incorrectly said that the former Obama administration official had been chosen for the jury. Rather, Judge Amy Berman Jackson had approved the person as a potential juror. Additionally, they seemed to incorrectly indicate which official is the potential juror.
Jones began reading a list of former Obama officials, asking Engels to give a sign if he said the correct name; apparently he got his answer when he named former White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri. But the OMB communications director position is different than the White House communications director position, meaning that if the report about the potential juror working for OMB is correct, the potential juror is not Palmieri.
Jones then said, “We’ve got to have Obama’s former communications director hang Roger. Hell, if they give him the death penalty, maybe she can hang him and kick the lever and he’ll break his neck and she can piss all over his dead body.” Engels said of the potential juror: “All I can say is from what happened in the courtroom today, there was a well-known Obama communications asset that was allowed to be a juror.” He added that “her husband is a member of the deep state intelligence community.” Jones replied, “Hey, look up Palmieri’s husband.”