The Nation : Jury Fails to Reach Verdict on Nofziger

A federal court jury in Washington failed to reach a verdict in its first day of deliberating illegal lobbying charges against former White House aide Lyn Nofziger and his business partner, Mark A. Bragg. U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Flannery replaced a juror who had fallen asleep during closing arguments, impaneling an alternate juror in her place, then gave the jury instructions that appeared to undermine a key element of Nofziger’s defense against four felony counts. Flannery ruled that Nofziger’s lobbying of former White House colleagues could have been illegal even if the issues that he pushed on behalf of two defense contractors and a labor union were relatively unimportant to the White House.