Martha Stewart: 'I Didn't Cheat Anybody'

July 16, 2004 — -- In her first interview after a federal judge sentenced her to five months in prison, Martha Stewart told Barbara Walters that she cheated no one and hopes she will be vindicated on appeal.

Stewart rebuffed criticism that she should have shown more remorse or been more contrite during her trial. She said she believes the charges against her were "a direct result of something that was a personal matter. Not a company matter. … I didn't go and cheat the little people. I just didn't do that. We're all little people."

In addition to the prison term, Stewart was ordered to serve five months of home confinement and fined $30,000 for her role in a stock deal gone bad. The sentence has been stayed pending appeal.

Stewart said she was terribly disappointed at the sentence, but felt Judge Miriam Cedarbaum was fair.

"I had hoped for, at the most, some confinement, community service. And instead I have five months of incarceration, and five months of house arrest that's monitored. … But it could have been worse. … Five months versus 10 months or 16 months … That's a good thing," she told Walters.

‘Look at Nelson Mandela’

In an interview with Walters before her trial, Stewart had said she was afraid of going to prison. In today's interview she said she had prepared herself for the possibility, but said she hasn't given much thought to what life might actually be like in a federal prison.