Firing a powerful final shot at Martha Stewart, the government yesterday gave jurors a six-point list of why the domestic diva is guilty of obstructing justice and lying to the feds about getting a secret ImClone stock tip.
In a sharp closing argument, prosecutor Michael Schachter nailed together five weeks of evidence against the one-time corporate golden girl, saying, “Martha Stewart probably thought that she would never get caught out.”
Stewart, 62, and her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic, 41, ended up tripping over their own lies and made “a series of mistakes” as they tried to outwit the feds in the early months of 2002, the jury was told.
“They left behind a trail of evidence that exposed the truth about Martha Stewart’s sale and exposed the lies that they would tell,” Schachter said, as the good-living guru looked on grimly.
In his six-point, David Letterman-style list, Schachter named a trio of one-time allies who combined to unstitch the pair’s cover-up – former Bacanovic assistant Douglas Faneuil, Stewart’s best pal Mariana Pasternak, and assistant Ann Armstrong.
He said Faneuil – who testified that he was instructed by Bacanovic to tip Stewart that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to dump his shares – proved to be a reliable witness during a grueling four days on the witness stand.
“He wasn’t gilding a lily, he wasn’t trying to say things to make the defendants look worse – he was straightforward,” Schachter said.
“If you believe Doug Faneuil’s testimony, this trial is over – you can tune me out.”
It was the fear that Faneuil might not go along with the ImClone stock trade cover-up that prompted Stewart to lie to the feds twice by telling them that Bacanovic handled her fateful sale of 3,928 shares, rather than the then 26-year-old assistant, the jury was told.
Scoring an occasional chuckle from some jurors, Schachter said the witness stand was “clearly the last place” that Pasternak wanted to be when she delivered damaging testimony that her pal of 20 years knew Waksal was trying to sell when she dumped her shares on Dec. 27, 2001.
And he reminded jurors of Armstrong’s tear-stained testimony in which she revealed that her boss tampered with a critical phone message left by Bacanovic on the day she sold the shares.
“It gives us a peek inside Martha Stewart’s head,” Schachter said.
Five days after altering the message and then ordering Armstrong to change it back, Stewart told the feds she didn’t know if the message was in her assistant’s phone log, the government charges.
In his three-hour summation, Schachter also dismantled Stewart’s alibi – that she had a pre-existing agreement to sell her ImClone shares if they fell to $60.
He said the $60 story was a “sham” because Bacanovic had never bothered to mention ImClone’s stock price in his message left with Armstrong and showed no interest in the stock price in e-mails to Faneuil on the day Stewart sold.
Bacanovic lawyer Richard Strassberg began his closing argument yesterday afternoon, describing the government’s case as a “house of cards.”
“When you push on it, when you look at it closely, it collapses – because it has no substance. It has no foundation,” he said.
Stewart lawyer Robert Morvillo will deliver his closing argument today.
MARTHA ON TRIAL
POINT: Prosecutor Michael Schachter tells the jury in his closing argument that Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic left a “trail of evidence” proving they’re guilty of conspiracy, lying to the feds and obstructing justice.
COUNTERPOINT: Bacanovic lawyer Richard Strassberg says the government’s case “makes no sense” because it relies on speculation and unreliable testimony by former rookie broker Douglas Faneuil.
‘BROAD’WAY SHOW: Burly actor Brian Dennehy, famous for his star turn in Broadway’s “Long Days Journey Into Night,” and as a bartender in the film “10,” showed up in Martha Stewart’s courtroom front-row celeb seat yesterday. “She’s a good broad,” pronounced Dennehy, who worked with Stewart as a stockbroker some 30 years ago.
The government’s reasons why Martha Stewart is guilty
1. Douglas Faneuil testified that Stewart sold her shares after he tipped her that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to dump his family’s shares.
2. Faneuil hired his own criminal lawyer days later.
3. Mariana Pasternak backed Faneuil by testifying that Stewart told her she knew Waksal was trying to sell before she sold her own shares.
4. Stewart called Waksal’s office moments after selling her shares and lied to the feds by claiming she only wanted to “see how Sam was doing.”
5. If there was a $60 brokers’ agreement to sell, why didn’t Stewart dump the 3,928 shares in her personal account when she sold another $3.1M worth of ImClone shares for $61 only two months earlier?
6. Stewart assistant Ann Armstrong testified that Stewart tampered with a critical phone message from her broker and lied about it to the feds.