The public relations contest that the Enron case has become continued today. In this Chronicle op-ed, Mike Ramsey — former Enron chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay’s criminal defense attorney — levels a blast at the Chronicle for adhering to the government’s witch hunt theme in regard to a recent Chronicle editorial critical of Linda Lay’s involvement in the sale of a Lay Family charity’s Enron stock days before the filing of Enron’s bankruptcy case:

As the tabloids demonstrate, there is money to be made by jumping onto the popular side of a public frenzy. However, one can still hope that major newspapers will refuse to become mouthpieces for those who prefer strong-arm tactics to public trials.
Just maybe it is time to get to the truth by a public trial instead of in the backrooms of the Enron Task Force and Houston Chronicle. (One might even wonder if those backrooms have adjoining doors.)

Then, Mr. Ramsey gives the Lay side of the story regarding the stock sale:

Linda Lay sold Enron shares as president of the family’s charitable foundation. They were shares that Ken and Linda had given to that foundation prior to the end of 2000 and every penny of the money from the sale went to such charities as United Way, YMCA, DePelchin Children’s Center, Star of Hope, Holocaust Museum Houston, and Open Door Mission, among many others.
The sale was made on the day, Nov. 28, 2001, when the share price was in free-fall. Linda salvaged what she could, as was her duty as president of a charitable foundation. (The sale price was $2.37, off from a high near $85 earlier that year and a closing price the day before of $4.01.) More remarkable, during that market panic neither Ken nor Linda sold any of their personal shares.
Indeed, after Ken’s return as CEO in August 2001 they held all their shares as the market plunged from near $40 per share to near $0.
The only shares that Ken and Linda ever sold during that tragic three and one-half months were sold to prevent margin calls from triggering a forced sale of all their shares. They never voluntarily sold a dime’s worth after Ken’s return. In fact, at bankruptcy they still held more than 1 million shares and more than 4 million vested stock options.

The dubious nature of the government’s insider trading case against Mr. Lay has been examined in many previous posts here, including this one and this one. But Mr. Ramsey sees something far more sinister than a government investigation:

While it is true that Andrew Weissmann and his Enron Task Force have chosen not to comment publicly [on the investigation of Linda Lay’s stock sale], I cannot accept that after nearly three years of investigation, the press and a secret grand jury happened, by coincidence, upon this particular event at the same time.
Perhaps I am cynical, but this is not exactly my first rodeo.
No, there was a calculated leak done to produce an unfavorable story in aid of a shamefully false accusation.

Mr. Ramsey is undoubtedly correct that the Linda Lay story was a calculated leak by the government, and I am sympathetic to the argument that the prosecution has no business engaging in this type of public relations. However, the fact remains that Linda Lay’s sale of this stock days before Enron’s bankruptcy was a stupid move. Here’s hoping that no lawyer advised her to do it.