Massachusetts ex-senator who seeks pardon from Trump wanted ‘post-trial contact with jurors’
A former state senator convicted of fraud who wants a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump wants his attorney to get “post-trial contact with jurors” in the hopes of tossing the verdict.
Dean Tran, a Massachusetts Republican who ran for Congress, earlier this year was found guilty of pandemic assistance fraud and making false statements on federal tax returns. He was convicted by a federal jury of 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns.
Shortly after the verdict, Tran renewed his motion for an acquittal. When that was denied, Tran’s attorney last month tried for “post-trial contact with jurors.”
“Defendant has now filed a motion, unaccompanied by any supporting memorandum of law, seeking an order authorizing defense counsel to ‘solicit post-trial contact with the jurors,’ ” U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV wrote in his ruling denying the motion.
The court has historically only allowed lawyers to conduct post-verdict juror interviews when there are “extraordinary situations.”
Those “extraordinary situations” appropriate for post-verdict jury interviews are generally limited to cases with strong evidence that a jury improperly reached a verdict, Saylor noted.
“As there is no indication that the jury improperly reached a verdict, that there was any juror misconduct, or that this case is otherwise an ‘extraordinary situation’ appropriate for post-verdict interviews, the motion is DENIED,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
Tran served in the Massachusetts State Senate, representing Worcester and Middlesex Counties from 2017 to January 2021.
After Tran’s State Senate term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently received pandemic unemployment benefits while he was also employed as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based retailer of automotive parts (the Automotive Parts Company). While working as a paid consultant, Tran fraudulently collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits.
Also, Tran concealed $54,700 in consulting income that he received from the Automotive Parts Company from his 2021 federal income tax return. This was in addition to thousands of dollars in income that Tran concealed from the IRS while collecting rent from tenants who rented his Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022.
Earlier this week when President Biden pardoned his son Hunter, Tran called for Trump to give him an “unconditional pardon.”
“A full investigation into Senator Tran’s cases and an unconditional pardon is warranted,” Tran posted.
Tran in 2017 became the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Massachusetts Legislature.
His senate district included Fitchburg, Leominster, and several other communities in north central Massachusetts.
Tran lost the State Senate seat in 2020, and he ended up running unsuccessfully for Congress in the 3rd District in 2022.
Tran’s federal sentencing has been scheduled for next week.
