NEW YORK Rosie, M & amp;Ms in hand, backs Stewart at trial

A key prosecution witness was to take the stand today.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie O'Donnell briefly turned a federal courtroom into a pro-Martha Stewart press conference -- and even jokingly tried to bribe a prosecutor with M & amp;M's to drop the case against the lifestyle maven.
O'Donnell, just three months removed from her own trial, sat in the front row Monday for the third day of testimony at Stewart's obstruction-of-justice trial, holding forth during breaks on her opinion of the charges.
"I think it's a tragedy and a travesty what the federal government has done," she said, praising Stewart for being a successful businesswoman and accusing the government of going after her for celebrity value.
Offered a bribe
After the jury was excused for the day, O'Donnell approached the prosecutor and coyly offered him a bag of peanut M & amp;M's as a bribe to drop the case.
"The rest of your life, you're going to be known as the guy who tried to take down Martha Stewart," O'Donnell said she told prosecutor Michael Schachter. "You should have passed on this gig."
Schachter grinned and politely declined the candy. "Thanks for coming," he said.
O'Donnell, a former popular daytime TV host, knows something about courtrooms herself: She is fighting a lengthy breach-of-contract battle against Gruner + Jahr, the publisher of her defunct magazine, called Rosie.
A judge declared in November there were no winners in the case, and is still trying to determine whether either side should be awarded money, and how much.
But that was a civil trial. Stewart, in stark contrast, is charged as a criminal -- accused of concocting a false story with her stockbroker that they had a pre-existing agreement to sell her ImClone Systems stock if it fell below $60.
Prosecutors say the broker, Peter Bacanovic, actually told his assistant, Douglas Faneuil, to pass a tip to Stewart that the Waksal family was trying to sell its shares.
Advance information
Waksal has admitted he had advance knowledge of a negative government report about an ImClone cancer drug, not released publicly until Dec. 28, that sent ImClone shares into a sharp decline.
Faneuil was to testify today. His testimony is vital to the government in laying out the sequence of events surrounding the ImClone sale, and backing up prosecutors' accusations that Bacanovic ordered Faneuil to tip Stewart about the Waksals' sales.
Faneuil had been set to testify last week, but the judge delayed the testimony after defense attorneys complained prosecutors had waited too long to turn over an FBI document that could help their case.
On Monday, the government called a Merrill Lynch & amp; Co. administrator as a witness to show Bacanovic got Faneuil's pay boosted in April 2002.
The government has contended Bacanovic plied Faneuil with extra vacation time and airline tickets in exchange for supporting the story that he and Stewart had a $60 stock order.