Judge warns Massey Energy CEO not to bring politics into mine explosion trial

Source: Associated Press

Judge warns Massey Energy CEO not to bring politics into mine explosion trial

Associated Press in Charleston, West Virginia
Wednesday 21 October 2015 22.49 BST

An outspoken critic of president Barack Obama charged with conspiring to violate mine safety rules before a deadly explosion is under orders not to tell jurors he’s being persecuted by Democrats.

The federal judge also warned former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship that safety rules are not on trial.

But Blankenship hasn’t checked his Republican politics at the courtroom door, and three weeks into his trial, the coal boss’s lawyers have found ways to repeatedly suggest to jurors that regulators targeted his company for political reasons.

Blankenship, whose unabashed bankrolling of West Virginia Republicans once inspired a John Grisham novel, The Appeal, was an active blogger before the trial, blaming the nation’s problems on media liberals, unions, “greeniacs,” and much of corporate America.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/21/massey-energy-ceo-politics-mine-explosion-trial