by Andrew Seffrood, guest columnist

  Outspoken, flamboyant mobster lawyer Bruce Cutler recently was asked to describe James Comey, former US Attorney for Southern New York and his courtroom opponent.  "He's a smart, classy guy ... not a zealot like Ashcroft." 

Martha Stewart might disagree.  Last June, Stewart was charged by Comey with securities fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making false statements.  "This criminal case is about lying: lying to the FBI, lying to the SEC and lying to investors," said U.S. Attorney James Comey. "That is conduct that will not be tolerated by anyone."

The charges stem from that now well-known incident two Decembers ago, when cable television news channels were reporting a large sell-off in ImClone shares the day before the Food and Drug Administration refused to approve its promising cancer drug Erbitux.  One of the sellers included Martha Stewart, whose shares were sold by her broker Peter Bacanovic at $58, after starting the day at over $63.

Note the absence of an indictment against Martha Stewart for insider trading.  The Justice Department's case against Stewart is so weak that she is not being charged with insider trading, or the profitable trading of shares based on knowledge available to her and not the rest of the public.  Instead, she is being charged with lying about not doing something that the Justice Department cannot prove.  Got that?

The 3,928 shares of ImClone that were sold that fateful day were worth roughly $228,000.  While that amount of money surely is not chump change, Stewart has said that she has lost over $400 million dollars as a result of her company's declining value, legal fees, and lost business opportunities.  She also resigned as chairman and chief executive of her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.  Certainly a woman with a track record of being a successful runway model, stockbroker, and media star would have the perspicacity not to risk everything she had on a quarter-million dollar, illegal NASDAQ trade. 

On October 3rd, Stewart prosecutor James Comey was nominated by President George W. Bush to be deputy Attorney General.   Congratulations are in order for Mr. Comey, as he successfully predicted that a high profile prosecution of Martha Stewart would result in a high profile promotion. 

This story will be a textbook example of how Americans allowed "it" to happen; when the United States becomes a police state, and civil liberties have been obliterated, the case of a prosecutor using state power to gain notoriety, resulting in an appointment where his influence will be greater, will be recognized.  The government successfully predicted that the witch hunt of a rich, inimitable perfectionist homemaker would be a popular, misunderstood prosecution.  Perhaps the public has no sympathy for poor little rich girl Martha Stewart, but unless an entrenched, wealthy government can be prevented from increasing its power, we will all be criminals.