U.S. District Judge David Hittner kept the pedal to the metal in the Lea Fastow trial today by scheduling the case to begin on June 2. Everyone still expects that the government and counsel for Ms. Fastow will cut a deal that will be acceptable to Judge Hittner, but time is definitely growing short to hammer out such a plea bargain and have Judge Hittner approve it.
The Enron Task Force is also scheduled to go to trial on June 7 in U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlien’s court in the case known as the “Nigerian Barge case” against six former Enron and Merrill Lynch executives.