Martha in the Dock

I hadn't planned on commenting on the creepy attempts to jail the creepy Martha Stewart. But government overkill makes strange bedfellows.

As the trial adjourned for the weekend, the prosecutor's star witness testified that he was lying when he originally denied tipping Stewart regarding insider sales of ImClone stock. The witness, brokerage assistant Douglas Faneuil, said he thought he would be fired if he failed to protect an important Merrill Lynch client. This is supposed to suggest that Martha herself was lying, which is the sole issue in the case. (Prosecutors did not charge her with insider trading.)

As Roger Musil notes, this actually suggests the opposite, because Faneuil cut a deal with the Feds in exchange for his testimony:

How likely is it that a man who admits he lied to federal investigators to avoid losing his job is above lying at the behest of federal investigators to avoid losing his freedom? This single admission of Mr. Faneuil should alone be more than enough to create reasonable doubt as to his credibility in the minds of any sensible jury. And if that happens, the case against Ms. Stewart falls.

First they came for a WASP-y home design guru, and I did nothing, because I am not a WASP-y home design guru. . . When terrorists still roam the earth, why is our government wasting time on Martha Stewart?