A government witness has been charged today with committing perjury in his testimony in the case against Martha Stewart. Larry F. Stewart (no relation), an ink expert who works in the Secret Service, was found to have made eight separate false statements about two different subjects, according to the Associated Press. Women’s rights advocates, including the editor of Ms. magazine, Elaine Lafferty, have protested Stewart’s guilty verdict, arguing that she was targeted because she is a powerful woman and subjected to what is effectively a “bitch hunt.” Though US Attorney David Kelley says that the false testimony will have no bearing on Stewart’s guilty verdict, David Howard, a lawyer who specializes in white-collar criminal defense and corporate investigations, told Reuters, “She may well be entitled to a new trial if the judge found that some perjured testimony could have contributed to the guilty verdict against her.” Stock in Stewart’s company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, rose as much as 15 percent shortly after the news of the perjury broke this afternoon. JOIN the Ms. community and receive the premier feminist publication for one year
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