Jared Fogle Shut Down by Judge in Bid for Early Prison Release

Disgraced Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle was denied a bid for early release, TMZ reports.

Fogle reportedly filed legal documents he prepared himself in the prison library, claiming Judge Tanya Pratt was not fit to hear his original case in the first place. He argued that Pratt had no jurisdiction to hear his criminal case because his sex crime charges required proof he traveled from one state to another to engage in sexual acts with minors. Fogle claims the acts were all performed in one state.

The judge, who sentenced him to 15 years in prison 2015, shut down his argument. She reportedly called his argument “frivolous” and according to Fox News, said his appeal held “no conceivable validity in American law.”

Pratt invited him to appeal to a higher court, but she did not find merit in his claims.

As part of his previous pro se challenge in November, Fogle hoped for a break based on another motion filed by Frank Edwin Pate, a Texas man serving a 17-year sentence for wire and mail fraud convictions at the Fogle’s Colorado prison.

Pate was convicted of running a fraudulent foreign currency exchange scheme that cheated investors out of nearly $3 million, according to a statement by the FBI.

In his motion, Fogle cited a “friend of the court” brief Pate filed in September to claim a “clear and obvious error” regarding the court’s lack of “Subject Matter Jurisdiction.” Judge Pratt also rejected Pate’s motion in September.

Fogle pleaded guilty in November 2015 to trading in child pornography and traveling across state lines to pay for sex with underage girls. He was sentenced to serve 15 years and eight months at a federal prison in Littleton, Colorado. He has served a little more than two years and, according to an online database of federal inmates, his projected release date is July 11, 2029.

The 40-year-old Indiana man previously became a star of Subway’s advertising campaigns after losing 200 pounds, partly by eating Subway sandwiches. He lost the long-standing deal with the food chain following the criminal accusations.