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American Morning
Martha Stewart Case
Aired February 06, 2004 - 07:37 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Defense attorneys are trying to prove that Douglas Faneuil holds a grudge against Martha Stewart. In court yesterday, they used his e-mails to show how angry he was over her abusive phone calls.
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is joining us now.
You've been in the courtroom. What happened yesterday? What was some of this damning evidence that we keep on hearing about now?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it was both damning and hilarious evidence in court yesterday.
COLLINS: Really?
TOOBIN: Well, because basically what the defense was trying to show is that on direct examination Faneuil portrayed himself as just sort of an objective observer, that Martha Stewart was kind of just another client. But as it turns out, they had only spoken about five times, and it seems every single time they spoke, Martha Stewart had screamed at this guy, and he had then complained to his friends in e- mails about it. And I think we can read some of the e-mails.
COLLINS: Yes, we actually want to put these on the screen for everybody, so they can see what we're talking about here.
TOOBIN: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes, I don't think he liked her much.
TOOBIN: It sort of seemed that way.
COLLINS: Here's the first one. It says: "I just spoke to Martha. I have never, ever been treated so rudely by a stranger on the telephone. She actually hung up on me."
TOOBIN: And then the next one.
COLLINS: And we have another one. This one is very interesting. "Martha yelled at me again today, but I snapped in her face, and she actually backed down! Baby put Ms. Martha in her place."
TOOBIN: I've made a policy decision that I will now be referring to myself exclusively as "baby."
COLLINS: OK.
TOOBIN: So, baby is doing legal analysis now.
And the courtroom was laughing during some of this. At another point, he talked about how he had put Martha Stewart on hold at one point, and when she got back on the phone, she said, "Your hold music is so bad that I am taking all my money out of Merrill Lynch unless they change the hold music." I mean, even...
COLLINS: Has that music been changed, do you know?
TOOBIN: Yes, we never really settled that. Peter Bacanovic even was even laughing at that.
The legal significance, not just the entertainment significance of this, is to show that he did seem to have some sort of grudge against her. But it's also important to say that, you know, on the substance of his testimony about whether he passed the tip from Sam Waksal, who was the CEO selling the stock, to Martha Stewart, he remained pretty solid on that. I mean, he's a pretty good witness.
COLLINS: Yes. Day four for Faneuil on Monday obviously. What do you think the prosecution is going to do now?
TOOBIN: Well, I think the next person to cross-examine is Robert Morvillo, who is Martha Stewart's lawyer. All of the cross- examination so far has been by Bacanovic's lawyer. And I think Stewart's lawyer will have a somewhat different agenda, not to demolish Faneuil to show he's a liar, but just to show that his dealings with Martha Stewart were extremely minimal, and that he probably just didn't even have any impact on her. So, it will be somewhat different, and Morvillo, I think, is probably a better cross- examiner, and we should have more news.
COLLINS: Do you still look at Faneuil as the star witness of this whole deal?
TOOBIN: Oh, there is no question, because he's the only person who really suggests that this whole deal was somehow sinister. I mean, says this was a cover-up, I knew I was lying, Bacanovic knew I was lying. He's devastating witness to Bacanovic, less so to Martha Stewart.
COLLINS: All right, CNN senior legal analyst having-some-fun-in- the-courtroom Jeffrey Toobin. All right, thanks so much, Jeff.
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 6, 2004 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Defense attorneys are trying to prove that Douglas Faneuil holds a grudge against Martha Stewart. In court yesterday, they used his e-mails to show how angry he was over her abusive phone calls.
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is joining us now.
You've been in the courtroom. What happened yesterday? What was some of this damning evidence that we keep on hearing about now?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it was both damning and hilarious evidence in court yesterday.
COLLINS: Really?
TOOBIN: Well, because basically what the defense was trying to show is that on direct examination Faneuil portrayed himself as just sort of an objective observer, that Martha Stewart was kind of just another client. But as it turns out, they had only spoken about five times, and it seems every single time they spoke, Martha Stewart had screamed at this guy, and he had then complained to his friends in e- mails about it. And I think we can read some of the e-mails.
COLLINS: Yes, we actually want to put these on the screen for everybody, so they can see what we're talking about here.
TOOBIN: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes, I don't think he liked her much.
TOOBIN: It sort of seemed that way.
COLLINS: Here's the first one. It says: "I just spoke to Martha. I have never, ever been treated so rudely by a stranger on the telephone. She actually hung up on me."
TOOBIN: And then the next one.
COLLINS: And we have another one. This one is very interesting. "Martha yelled at me again today, but I snapped in her face, and she actually backed down! Baby put Ms. Martha in her place."
TOOBIN: I've made a policy decision that I will now be referring to myself exclusively as "baby."
COLLINS: OK.
TOOBIN: So, baby is doing legal analysis now.
And the courtroom was laughing during some of this. At another point, he talked about how he had put Martha Stewart on hold at one point, and when she got back on the phone, she said, "Your hold music is so bad that I am taking all my money out of Merrill Lynch unless they change the hold music." I mean, even...
COLLINS: Has that music been changed, do you know?
TOOBIN: Yes, we never really settled that. Peter Bacanovic even was even laughing at that.
The legal significance, not just the entertainment significance of this, is to show that he did seem to have some sort of grudge against her. But it's also important to say that, you know, on the substance of his testimony about whether he passed the tip from Sam Waksal, who was the CEO selling the stock, to Martha Stewart, he remained pretty solid on that. I mean, he's a pretty good witness.
COLLINS: Yes. Day four for Faneuil on Monday obviously. What do you think the prosecution is going to do now?
TOOBIN: Well, I think the next person to cross-examine is Robert Morvillo, who is Martha Stewart's lawyer. All of the cross- examination so far has been by Bacanovic's lawyer. And I think Stewart's lawyer will have a somewhat different agenda, not to demolish Faneuil to show he's a liar, but just to show that his dealings with Martha Stewart were extremely minimal, and that he probably just didn't even have any impact on her. So, it will be somewhat different, and Morvillo, I think, is probably a better cross- examiner, and we should have more news.
COLLINS: Do you still look at Faneuil as the star witness of this whole deal?
TOOBIN: Oh, there is no question, because he's the only person who really suggests that this whole deal was somehow sinister. I mean, says this was a cover-up, I knew I was lying, Bacanovic knew I was lying. He's devastating witness to Bacanovic, less so to Martha Stewart.
COLLINS: All right, CNN senior legal analyst having-some-fun-in- the-courtroom Jeffrey Toobin. All right, thanks so much, Jeff.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
