How to Get Out of Jury Duty: Know Michael Moore

A juror found herself bounced from a Citigroup-EMI fraud trial after her connections to liberal filmmaker Michael Moore emerged. Citigroup lawyers played a clip from Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story in court showing juror Donna Gianell’s name in the credits, then asked Judge Jed Rakoff to dismiss her. Rakoff, however, technically dismissed Gianell after he learned she was trying to discuss the case with fellow jurors—a big no-no.

Gianell did not appear to be in the film, but was thanked in the credits, the Telegraph reports; the New York Post notes that lawyers claimed her connection to the film proves she is biased against banks. The judge was apparently more upset, however, that when he questioned Gianell about talking to her fellow jurors, she appeared to lie to him, the New York Times reports. The trial centers around British financier Guy Hands’ buyout of music company EMI; he claims Citi tricked him into paying too much.
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