Posted on 08/18/2002 6:10:56 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
Embattled media mogul Martha Stewart is said to see a political conspiracy behind the deepening investigation into her questionable stock trades, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
"Martha really believes it is the Republicans who are behind this -- and they are chasing her for purely political reasons," a Stewart intimate said this weekend.
"Martha told me that she believes they are doing the very same thing to her, they did to President Clinton. What Ken Starr did. She believes it is nothing short of a witch hunt! They are even digging into her private e-mails! They are demanding to know who she's dated. Martha said to me, 'Can you believe they want to know who I'm dating?' Republicans on Capitol Hill are probing her sex life!"
MORE
The close Stewart friend, who demanded not to be named out of fear of being dragged into the investigation, spoke just hours after Justice Department officials sacked her stockbroker's offices - removing boxes of evidence related to the ImClone stock scandal.
"Who runs the Justice Department? Republicans. Who runs the House of Representatives, and these committees looking into Martha? The Republicans," said the Stewart friend. "Guess who is a major force in raising money and contributing to Democrats?"
[Last year Billionaire Stewart contributed $125,000 in soft money to Democratic accounts, records show.]
The close Stewart friend predicted Americans will rally behind Stewart the same way many did with President Clinton during his impeachment.
"Once all the facts come out about this abuse of power, about these subpoenas, which ask for every detail on Martha's very private life, people will come to her side."
A spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee strongly denied congressional investigators are being motivated out of any political concern and noted questions about a subject's personal contacts with other individuals are standard.
Developing...
Now Paul, that visual is about as bad as Ayn Rand and Greenspan.
Flicker, please show this article to your Missus.
Bingo. We should just ignore anything Martha says. Where's RUBIN?
This stoooopid bee-ahhhtch is making a horrible mistiake alignin' herslf with the RATS!!
JMHO...MUD
Those were my thoughts. It seems to me she is getting her talking points from the Clintons. They think that America adores Martha, so if they can demonize Pubbies yet again about her, it helps at election time. PURE EVIL!
Probably after Hades approaches 32F.
Ross Perot redux!
BY the way, speaking of Lizzie,
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Celebrity publicist Lizzie Grubman did not appear in court Friday but her lawyers did, meeting with prosecutors and a newly-assigned judge behind closed doors.
None of the lawyers would say what was discussed in the 33-minute conference in the case against Grubman, who is accused of being drunk when she backed an SUV into a crowd of 16 people outside a nightclub in Southampton last summer.
Judge Michael Mullen continued the case for one week and sent Grubman's lawyers and a prosecutor away with instructions not to discuss what went on during their meeting in chambers.
Mullen may have been trying to avoid a repeat of what happened when Grubman last appeared in court: a spontaneous, tearful public apology to the 16 people who received injuries in the crash outside the Conscience Point Inn on July 7, 2001.
Special prosecutor Joy Watson — who recently has said she is prepared to try Grubman on charges that include assault, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident — declined Friday to say whether Mullen fashioned a plea agreement for Grubman's consideration during the conference.
According to published reports, Watson wanted Judge John Mullin — who got off the case because he is retiring — to decide what punishment Grubman deserves if she pleads guilty to any of the charges to avoid a trial.
"We had a conference and it was adjourned until next Friday. That's as much as I can say," Watson said as she left the courtroom.
Grubman's lawyers, Edward Burke Jr. and Stephen Scaring, also brushed off questions about the meeting with the judge. Burke, however, said before the session that the defense intended to ask Mullen to act on long-pending motions for dismissal and to suppress statements Grubman allegedly made to police.
Grubman was not required to appear in court Friday, the first time Mullen met with the defense and prosecution about the case. And unlike Grubman's circus-like appearance July 16, only a few reporters and just one camera crew showed up this time.
So what did happen in chambers?
The silence by the prosecutor and defense lawyers and the relatively short continuance of the case for one week could be indicators that Mullen forced Watson to put her last, best offer on the table and is giving Grubman one week to accept it or go to trial.
"She is expected to be here next Friday," Watson said.
Grubman, 31, is being sued by many of the 16 people injured in the crash. According to the lawsuits, Grubman backed her father's $70,000 Mercedes SUV into a crowd of people waiting to get into the nightclub just moments after a bouncer asked her to move the vehicle from a fire lane.
mud, mud, mud... she's been tryin to get rid of that stinky clinton smell for years...
otoh, hell, she's from the hamptons... she has people have sex for her.
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