An appeals court admonished a former federal prosecutor for making “unlawful” comments during closing arguments in the trial of a man linked to the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.
“The prosecutor repeatedly encouraged the jury to ‘substitute emotion for evidence,’ and she made an appeal to nationalism that was ‘wholly irrelevant to any facts or issues in the case, the purpose and effect of which [was] only … to arouse passion and prejudice,’” wrote the panel, which was made up of Judges Patricia Millett, Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Tuesday.
