[TomGuy]

she could have gotten off with a $200,000 fine and no jail time,

Martha needs to fire her lawyer for being stupid or hire someone to kick her in the butt.

Her 'gain' from the stock manipulation was $50,000.

The plea apparently would have cost her $200,000 and no jail time. But she refuses.

Per the Judge Commentator Napolitano on FoxNews, she now has a mandatory sentence of at least 16 months prison time (up to 16 years) and around $1 Million fine.

Either Martha got stupid legal advise or Martha's greed made her stupid.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Either Martha got stupid legal advise or Martha's greed made her stupid.

It probably wasn't greed. Sounds more like pride to me. "You can't touch me. I'm Martha!"

[Howlin]

It's Door Number Two, Tom.

She's just too greedy and too important to be subjected to the same rules that we, the great unwashed masses, are.

And the funniest part of this deal is that it apparently was on the table until the second they filed the first charges against her; I read back then that she actually accepted the deal, but at the last minute, decided to make a call to somebody at the DOJ and try to go over the head of the New York prosecutor to get an even better deal!

Things went all to hell shortly after that.

[Hildy]

OR...maybe she doesn't believe she did anything wrong...OR maybe she didn't do anything wrong.

[nmh]

Martha has ONLY HERSELF to blame. Not her lawyers. It is MARTHA that makes the decisions on AGREEING to a deal or not. It is MARTHA who LIED and put herself in THIS situation.

[lainde]

---she could have gotten off with a $200,000 fine and no jail time, Martha needs to fire her lawyer for being stupid or hire someone to kick her in the butt. ---

I'm just stunned. I knew in theory she could have cut a deal. But seeing the specifics of this lenient deal makes me think she simply "up and lost her mind"!