Today, jury selection begins for the trial of domestic deity Martha Stewart. If you haven’t followed the case at all, this timeline provides a minimally adequate summary. If you have been living in Amish country or the Unabomber’s shack, and don’t know who Ms. Stewart is, this short biography says that she is a retired model, retired stockbroker, former caterer, newspaper columnist, author, and all-around expert on all things domestic. As many people love her as love to hate her in this role.
The short version of the saga is this: about 2 years ago, Ms. Stewart was very fortunate to sell almost a quarter million dollars of stock in a biotech company the day before the FDA announced their drug would not be approved. The stock of this company needless to say was down sharply on the news. The immediate question was lucky, or had “insider information.” Being a former stockbroker, she very well knew that insider trading is something that could get you in big trouble. Indeed, the former CEO of that biotech company is in jail for trading on insider information about his company. But Ms. Stewart is not being charged with insider trading; she is charged with “lying to investigators, obstructing justice and securities fraud.”
The real issue is what she said to investigators and to the public. Specifically, she told shareholders in her own company that she had done nothing wrong. Loud statements about how she did nothing wrong are now the ammunition against her in court. In the expert words of Eric Dezenhall, “The way to keep out of jail is to shut your mouth; the way to rescue your brand is to talk. She’s trying to do two things at the same time, and there’s no way you can do both brilliantly.”
You would think some lawyer would have recommended she say nothing more than how she was looking forward to defending herself against “such ludicrous charges.” But the moral of the story — regardless of this media circus at taxpayer expense — is that the Fifth Amendment is good for you, and there is a reason the Miranda warning begins with “You have the right to remain silent.”
Don’t forget, tonight President Bush makes the State of the Union address. Before then, you might want to do some light reading. Try some of these interesting items.