Michael J. Wynne speaks on Jeffrey Skilling and the Enron trial — Transcript

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1. 0:00the Enron trial begins today the defense
2. 0:02teams for former Enron execs Ken Lay in
3. 0:05Jeff Skilling will start to make their
4. 0:06case in distant can they still get off
5. 0:09the hook so I think it's to talk about
6. 0:11it and attorneys Michael Wynn in Houston
7. 0:13and Howard Myers in New York gentlemen
8. 0:16thanks very much for being with us I
9. 0:18will start with Michael in Houston
10. 0:21what has anything changed here is ladies
11. 0:25still gonna claim that he didn't know
12. 0:27anything was going on it is skilling
13. 0:29still gonna say there wasn't a crime
14. 0:30well that's gonna be kind of difficult
15. 0:32and it's gonna wear thin fairly quickly
16. 0:35I think the two main defense teams are
17. 0:38going to be on the one hand that they
18. 0:40were doing what they're doing in order
19. 0:42to try to save the company and second
20. 0:45that there was a run on the bank that
21. 0:47prevented them from doing that mr. Lai
22. 0:50has a PhD in economics and listening to
23. 0:53the clips from those analyst calls of
24. 0:56those employee meetings he sounds very
25. 0:59involved and of course mr. skilling was
26. 1:01was deeply involved in the operations of
27. 1:04the company so the claim that they
28. 1:07simply did not know what they were doing
29. 1:08especially given the amount of money
30. 1:10that they were drawing it's going to
31. 1:12we're a fairly thin I think the best
32. 1:14chance is probably to allege they're
33. 1:16just trying to save the company
34. 1:18Howard Myers you see it the same way I
35. 1:20do here it's gonna be an issue
36. 1:22completely based on the credibility of
37. 1:25these two defendants there is no smoking
38. 1:27gun in this case there are no emails or
39. 1:30documents directly or indirectly tying
40. 1:32mr. Lai or mr. skilling to the alleged
41. 1:35fraud to the extent that mr. skilling
42. 1:37and mr. Lai can say that they've acted
43. 1:40to the best of their abilities that they
44. 1:42were not as involved as these witnesses
45. 1:45claimed they say they are they may be
46. 1:48able to skate by but I think it's a real
47. 1:50uphill battle you'd think you say
48. 1:53there's no real evidence so he's saying
49. 1:55the state
50. 1:57has not proved its case the
51. 1:58prosecution's hopper of this case no I
52. 2:00haven't said that with respect to the
53. 2:02culmination of witnesses who testified
54. 2:05it's fairly clear that they've alleged
55. 2:07that mr. Lai and mr. skilling word fact
56. 2:09involved and knowledgeable about the
57. 2:12inner workings of Enron to the extent
58. 2:14that mr. Lai and mr. Scalise attorney
59. 2:17can say that these people just said that
60. 2:18to save their own skin so to speak
61. 2:20because many of these witnesses have
62. 2:22already pled guilty to subvert serious
63. 2:24crimes Michael how long can we expect
64. 2:26the defense defense as plural to take
65. 2:30they estimated there would be about four
66. 2:32to six weeks of course the lay and
67. 2:35skilling examination and
68. 2:37cross-examination is going to be the
69. 2:39highlight of this case once they take
70. 2:41the stand really very little else
71. 2:43matters because the argument that people
72. 2:45were lying in order to try to save
73. 2:49themselves some prison time really gets
74. 2:51turned on its head once the two
75. 2:53defendants take the stand and the
76. 2:55question at that point is whether or not
77. 2:56the jury believes them and they will
78. 2:58take the stand they will testify we've
79. 3:00been promised several times that they
80. 3:01will testify mr. Myers if you were their
81. 3:05attorney would you let them testify a
82. 3:06tough call but I think in this case you
83. 3:08must have two to basically rebut the
84. 3:10testimony that's been already set forth
85. 3:12in this case mr. Wynn what about you
86. 3:15would you put your clients if they were
87. 3:17your clients I realize they have
88. 3:19separate lawyers but when you put them
89. 3:20on the stand I think in this case you
90. 3:22just have to do it especially with the
91. 3:24circumstances you have you have
92. 3:26Skilling's testimony for Congress before
93. 3:28Congress that he's gonna have to
94. 3:31confront and deal with and a lot of this
95. 3:34comes down to their knowledge at the
96. 3:36particular time and this jury is going
97. 3:38to want to hear from these particular
98. 3:40defendants risk is that maybe is there
99. 3:44anything in the congressional
100. 3:46appearances that could help or hurt them
101. 3:48I don't recall I'm saying much of
102. 3:50anything no but with all those
103. 3:54statements out there in the public
104. 3:55already there you need to you need to
105. 3:59confront it and to present that to
106. 4:01present the witnesses Howard Meyers is
107. 4:04there anything you think this defense
108. 4:06needs to needs to do either positive or
109. 4:10negative are there any potential
110. 4:12landmines that you can foresee that they
111. 4:14need to avoid yeah well in the opening
112. 4:16statements mr. Delaney's and mr.
113. 4:18Skilling's attorney promised that the
114. 4:20accounting was aboveboard and I think
115. 4:22there was a pretty substantial risk they
116. 4:24took and unless they come through and
117. 4:26show the accounting was aboveboard in
118. 4:28this case the jury may be scratching
119. 4:31their head saying you know show us the
120. 4:32money where's the problem here all right
121. 4:35so what would your chief defensive
122. 4:38tactic or strategy be here I would
123. 4:41essentially try to rip apart the
124. 4:43witnesses that have been set forth in
125. 4:45this case show that they had an axe to
126. 4:48grind that they were trying to save
127. 4:49their own skins that everyone was acting
128. 4:51in concert essentially John I'm sorry
129. 4:54Graham I'm just gonna finish off and
130. 4:56showing that indeed as was pointed out
131. 4:57previously that mr. Lai and mr. skilling
132. 5:00tried to act in the best interest of the
133. 5:02company why go in same question here
134. 5:04what would your trust be it would be a
135. 5:07subtle one to jury nullification guys
136. 5:10essentially what they're trying to do of
137. 5:12course they will try to put the jurors
138. 5:16in the shoes of the defendants
139. 5:17particularly mr. Lai as the company was
140. 5:20going downhill in the fall of 2001 and
141. 5:23also used that refrain that there was a
142. 5:25run on the bank the government will come
143. 5:26back and say simply Enron was a public
144. 5:29company not a bank it wasn't in the
145. 5:31business was supposed to be in the
146. 5:32business manufacturing earnings and the
147. 5:36government will also point out that I
148. 5:39know
149. 5:40genuine third-party entity would have
150. 5:42entered into these types of agreements
151. 5:44with with Enron the best defense tactic
152. 5:48there is to hammer home that there's no
153. 5:51paper trail there's no smoking gun
154. 5:53that's not the way business is done in
155. 5:55America and if these deals did exist you
156. 5:58would see some type of paperwork or some
157. 6:00type of notes or at least more than the
158. 6:02government's presented so far
159. 6:03alright gentlemen thank you very much
160. 6:05for your input appreciate it thank you
161. 6:06Michael Wynn with yet her an order
162. 6:08Howard Myers with Myers in hi