Martha Stewart and 18 USC 1001

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Very few leftists have paid attention to the Martha Stewart affair.
One of the exceptions is Doug Henwood of the Left Business Observer,
who has objected to her prosecution and conviction on the grounds
that her unpopularity is in large part due to resentment against her
invasion of "the traditionally male turf of big business," compounded
by her business of ironically making commodities out of "homemaking"
and thereby stripping it of the mythical aura of domesticity
untouched by capitalism, and that "[t]he only obvious victim of
Martha's alleged crime is the public's perception of the fairness of
the stock market," so the only effect of her conviction is to
"preserve the illusion that everyone is equal, and that the rich and
well connected have no special advantage over the masses" ("Free
Martha!" The Nation, February 9, 2004). Henwood has been so moved by
the Martha Stewart affair that he has even designed a "Give Martha's
Cell to Cheney" T-shirt and other Free Martha merchandise -- the
T-shirt is modeled by Nomi Prins (whose appearance is as sultry as as
her mind is sharp), the author of Other People's Money: The Corporate
Mugging of America, on the LBO homepage. Despite Henwood's valiant
efforts, the Martha Stewart case remains beneath the radar of
leftists across the political spectrum. After all, Stewart is hardly
the only successful businesswoman nowadays, and it is not just
sporadic investigations of insider trading but nearly all
institutions (from elections to the United Nations) of capitalist
democracy that are in the same business of marketing the illusion of
equality and fairness.

Perhaps, a more compelling reason for leftists to take a second look
at the Martha Stewart affair is 18 USC 1001:
[D]efense lawyers for white-collar criminal cases say the focus on
Ms. Stewart's celebrity misses the point. The real lesson of the
case, they say, is that it once again proves the potency of a
little-known federal law that has become a crucial weapon for
prosecutors.

The law, which lawyers usually call 1001, for the section of the
federal code that contains it, prohibits lying to any federal agent,
even by a person who is not under oath and even by a person who has
committed no other crime. Ms. Stewart's case illustrates the breadth
of the law, legal experts say. . . .

From social welfare to immigration to criminal justice, 18 USC 1001
is likely to present a far more danger to the poor than to the rich,
especially during the endless "war on terrorism."

The full posting at
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/05/martha-stewart-and-18-usc-1001.html>.
--
Yoshie

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