In a press statement today, the lawyer for former Enron Chairman Ken Lay said Lay felt betrayed by Andrew Fastow who pleaded guilty yesterday.

Ramsey said Lay had no knowledge that any of Enron's "special-purpose entities" that Fastow created had been used to illegally bolster the company's books, or that Fastow and others were siphoning money into their own pockets.

"Absolutely Andy Fastow had the trust of Ken Lay and the board up through at least October of 2001," Ramsey said. "Lay had the right to rely on that person at the very top of the chain," he added.

Lay's lawyer said Lay will be speaking publicly in the near future. We think that will be a mistake. One of the counts in Martha Stewart's indictment is based on statements she made protesting her innocence. No matter what Ken Lay says or doesn't say, he is not going to talk himself out of an Indictment if his former cohorts at Enron tell the Government he knew what was going on and either tacitly or expressly approved it. Once the Government has you in their cross-hairs, your protestations of innocence rarely have any effect. As we've said before, the jails are filled with people who thought if they could only explain things, the cops or prosecutors would see it their way.

Our unsolicited advice to Ken Lay: You have a Fifth Amendment right to stay silent Use it.