Martha Stewart asks charge be dropped

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Martha Stewart's lawyers have asked the federal court in New York to drop the charge of securities fraud, the most serious criminal charge she faces.

In a 122-page filing, Stewart's lawyers said she was only exercising her constitutional right to speak freely about her actions when she publicly denied she had committed insider trading of her personal holdings in ImClone Systems Inc., a New York biotechnology company, the Washington Post reported.

"Ms. Stewart is a person, not a commodity," the court filing said. "She has a personal reputation. She is entitled, as is anyone, to speak out to defend herself."

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan has alleged that Stewart was illegally trying to prop up the stock price of her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., when she made her public denials.

The motion is scheduled to be heard Nov. 18. before U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum in Manhattan.