After 24 days of testimony, Minnesota jurors began deliberations on Monday in the first Feeding Our Future trial. One juror was absent due to a $120,000 bribe offer on Sunday night, aimed at securing the defendants' acquittal, The Minnesota Reformer reports. The jurors had no idea, assuming they obeyed the judge’s instruction not to follow media reports, that after they left the courtroom to begin deliberating, the defendants’ lawyers argued over whether all seven defendants should be jailed until a verdict was reached, given the attempted bribery. The bribery attempt led the presiding judge to tighten security in the courtroom, sequester the jury, allow federal agents to seize the defendants’ cell phones and get a warrant to search them and imprison the defendants until a verdict is reached. The shocking events came just before defense attorneys were scheduled to wrap up their closing arguments Monday.
The seven defendants are accused of fraudulently obtaining $49 million in federal funds intended for feeding children during the COVID-19 pandemic. They allegedly used the money for personal luxuries instead of providing meals. More than five dozen other defendants have been similarly charged in the case known as the Feeding Our Future trial. Before the last three defense attorneys gave their closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson told U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel that a woman left $120,000 in cash with a juror’s father-in-law and promised to bring another bag if she voted to acquit the defendants. Brasel sequestered the jury during deliberations to prevent outside influence and deal with the possibility of courtroom involvement. Brasel decided to jail all defendants until a verdict was reached, saying she was disturbed by the fact that “there are only seven people other than attorneys who had the information to get to a juror and attempt to bribe that juror.”