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Martha Stewart on Trial: Teary Testimony
Aired February 10, 2004 - 11:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Still in New York City, Martha Stewart's personal secretary is back on the stand today following up on her teary testimony in the securities fraud trial yesterday.
Our Allan Chernoff is at the courthouse in Manhatten this morning with the latest on Ann Armstrong.
Good morning.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
And very dramatic testimony only minutes ago from Ann Armstrong, describing Martha Stewart sitting down at her assistant's computer and changing a message from her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic. The message that had been delivered back on December 27, 2001 had been Peter Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward. Now that, of course, was the day that Martha Stewart ended up selling her ImClone stock at the center of this entire trial.
Martha Stewart, according to her assistant, Ann Armstrong, asked to have that message brought up, then sat down at her computer, erased everything after the name Peter Bacanovic, and then wrote "re, ImClone" in terms of reference to ImClone, and then stepped away. And then moments later, Ann Armstrong testified, told her to change it back to the original.
So this is definitely damaging testimony, something that, certainly, Martha Stewart and her defense lawyers are going to have to somehow combat, because it certainly does indicate that Martha Stewart was concerned about this piece of evidence, was concerned that somehow this could implicate her. And this was at a point when she knew that she was being asked to come meet with U.S. authorities here in downtown Manhattan to talk about that trade that she made in ImClone and explain it.
Keep in mind, of course, that she, according to the government, had received information from her stockbroker's office that Sam Waksal, her friend and the former chief executive of ImClone, was trying to dump all of his stock on that day. And then she, Martha Stewart, sold all of her remaining ImClone shares -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Allan Chernoff in New York City, thank you for the latest from that trial.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 10, 2004 - 11:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Still in New York City, Martha Stewart's personal secretary is back on the stand today following up on her teary testimony in the securities fraud trial yesterday.
Our Allan Chernoff is at the courthouse in Manhatten this morning with the latest on Ann Armstrong.
Good morning.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
And very dramatic testimony only minutes ago from Ann Armstrong, describing Martha Stewart sitting down at her assistant's computer and changing a message from her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic. The message that had been delivered back on December 27, 2001 had been Peter Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward. Now that, of course, was the day that Martha Stewart ended up selling her ImClone stock at the center of this entire trial.
Martha Stewart, according to her assistant, Ann Armstrong, asked to have that message brought up, then sat down at her computer, erased everything after the name Peter Bacanovic, and then wrote "re, ImClone" in terms of reference to ImClone, and then stepped away. And then moments later, Ann Armstrong testified, told her to change it back to the original.
So this is definitely damaging testimony, something that, certainly, Martha Stewart and her defense lawyers are going to have to somehow combat, because it certainly does indicate that Martha Stewart was concerned about this piece of evidence, was concerned that somehow this could implicate her. And this was at a point when she knew that she was being asked to come meet with U.S. authorities here in downtown Manhattan to talk about that trade that she made in ImClone and explain it.
Keep in mind, of course, that she, according to the government, had received information from her stockbroker's office that Sam Waksal, her friend and the former chief executive of ImClone, was trying to dump all of his stock on that day. And then she, Martha Stewart, sold all of her remaining ImClone shares -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Allan Chernoff in New York City, thank you for the latest from that trial.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
