Former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran, convicted of fraud and seeking a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump, is hoping to overturn his guilty verdict by having his attorney contact jurors post-trial. Tran was found guilty earlier this year of pandemic assistance fraud and filing false tax returns, facing 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of tax fraud.
However, the request for post-trial contact with jurors was denied by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, who stated that such interviews are only permitted in extraordinary situations where there is strong evidence of juror misconduct. Tran had fraudulently received pandemic unemployment benefits while working as a consultant and concealed income on his tax returns.
Tran, the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, lost his Senate seat in 2020 and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022. His federal sentencing is scheduled for next week as he continues to seek a pardon from Trump.
Source
Photo credit www.bostonherald.com