Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Coffey Talk: Martha Stewart Case

Aired February 26, 2004 - 06:40   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: To New York now, the defense rests and Martha Stewart relaxes, or appears to.
Our legal analyst Kendall Coffey joins us live with some 'Coffey Talk' on the case.

This was so strange. Would you like me to quote Jeffery Toobin, your fellow legal analyst?

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Of course.

COSTELLO: He said the defense put on this dweeb and that was it. That was his quote.

COFFEY: Well, you know I think in a case like this where you have got such a famous people -- person who has been talking to people for years over the television, there's got to be more of an expectation than usual that Martha Stewart herself is going to take the stand to answer some of the many troubling questions. But there's a lot of risk in that. So obviously the defense lawyers who were in the courtroom reading the jury's body language decided it was safer to put on a couple of other witnesses, her business manager and her lawyer, to try to give the jury Martha's side of the story.

COSTELLO: But, Kendall, these weren't even good witnesses.

COFFEY: Well certainly there is going to have to be a lot done in closing. But here is where I think the defense must be going. They have seen a trial in which we, outside the courtroom, are focusing on Martha Stewart. But, Carol, inside the courtroom most of the really damaging evidence has been directed to Peter Bacanovic.

So perhaps the defense lawyers think that if they had put much more forward, they had put more attention on Martha, that in closing they are going to really create some distance between Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic. Because, after all, the one thing nobody ever said Martha Stewart did was tell somebody else to lie.

COSTELLO: Interesting. We have pictures of Martha Stewart. She was out to eat at a New York restaurant, so we'll show those to our viewers while I ask you the next question. I know that defense attorneys are going to ask the judge to throw out some of the charges. Will the judge consider throwing out the securities fraud charge?

COFFEY: Well that's the big question, because that's a controversial charge. Since when is proclaiming innocence, standard thing in America, a securities fraud? And the other big question about that, Carol, is that has very serious prison consequences. It's a 10-year maximum sentence. And depending upon what a judge might consider to be the losses to investors, she could be looking at maybe even seven years, which is the amount of time that her friend Sam Waksal was sentenced to for his role in the ImClone insider trading scandal.

COSTELLO: All right. Kendall Coffey live from Miami this morning.

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 26, 2004 - 06:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: To New York now, the defense rests and Martha Stewart relaxes, or appears to.
Our legal analyst Kendall Coffey joins us live with some 'Coffey Talk' on the case.

This was so strange. Would you like me to quote Jeffery Toobin, your fellow legal analyst?

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Of course.

COSTELLO: He said the defense put on this dweeb and that was it. That was his quote.

COFFEY: Well, you know I think in a case like this where you have got such a famous people -- person who has been talking to people for years over the television, there's got to be more of an expectation than usual that Martha Stewart herself is going to take the stand to answer some of the many troubling questions. But there's a lot of risk in that. So obviously the defense lawyers who were in the courtroom reading the jury's body language decided it was safer to put on a couple of other witnesses, her business manager and her lawyer, to try to give the jury Martha's side of the story.

COSTELLO: But, Kendall, these weren't even good witnesses.

COFFEY: Well certainly there is going to have to be a lot done in closing. But here is where I think the defense must be going. They have seen a trial in which we, outside the courtroom, are focusing on Martha Stewart. But, Carol, inside the courtroom most of the really damaging evidence has been directed to Peter Bacanovic.

So perhaps the defense lawyers think that if they had put much more forward, they had put more attention on Martha, that in closing they are going to really create some distance between Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic. Because, after all, the one thing nobody ever said Martha Stewart did was tell somebody else to lie.

COSTELLO: Interesting. We have pictures of Martha Stewart. She was out to eat at a New York restaurant, so we'll show those to our viewers while I ask you the next question. I know that defense attorneys are going to ask the judge to throw out some of the charges. Will the judge consider throwing out the securities fraud charge?

COFFEY: Well that's the big question, because that's a controversial charge. Since when is proclaiming innocence, standard thing in America, a securities fraud? And the other big question about that, Carol, is that has very serious prison consequences. It's a 10-year maximum sentence. And depending upon what a judge might consider to be the losses to investors, she could be looking at maybe even seven years, which is the amount of time that her friend Sam Waksal was sentenced to for his role in the ImClone insider trading scandal.

COSTELLO: All right. Kendall Coffey live from Miami this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com