To hear Mr. al-Arian's family and supporters describe the plea agreement, you might think the defendant been exonerated.
Michael A. Guadagno, assistant attorney in charge of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn, described the plea agreement as "fair" to the Government.
He described the plea agreement as an arrangement that will allow the company to put an unpleasant episode behind it.
Glenn asked strangers to help him create a clip that would tell their story, their cause and describe their plea.
He described the plea deal as an "excellent outcome" because it forced Dr. Lee to answer questions about what he was doing with the secret data.
At the time, the business secretary, Sajid Javid, described the plea for help from the works' owners as a "last-minute and unrealistic request for the taxpayer to make an open-ended funding commitment".
Mr. Ashley added that Mr. Li was "an honorable young man, and he says, 'No, I'm not going to admit to something I didn't do.' " "My client is ready for trial," said Mr. Ashley, who used the term "fire sale" to describe the plea offers that prosecutors had made to his client in recent months, each carrying less and less jail time.
One source described the plea bargaining under way as "very, very preliminary, like when you first try to buy a house, with the defense coming in with a real low bid and the prosecution holding out for a real high price". The negotiations were said to have begun in routine pre-trial exchanges between defense and prosecution lawyers.
Chiquita's chairman and chief executive, Fernando Aguirre, described the plea agreement as "a reasoned solution to the dilemma the company faced several years ago". Aguirre said in a statement that the "protection payments" were made by the company's Colombian banana-producing subsidiary, which it sold in 2004.
I also hope that people will see that I've apologized as much as I possibly can, so we can put this to rest and move on to other issues". Political consultant Rick Taylor described Bates' plea for voters' forgiveness as a "decent message" that plays off the public's general willingness to give people-- even people-- even he joked--second chances.
