Meg Scott Phipps walked into federal court in November, swore on a Bible to tell the truth and pleaded guilty to five counts of extortion, fraud and conspiracy.

Behind the scenes, her family says the guilty plea was a sham and prosecutors forced Phipps, the former agriculture commissioner, to admit crimes she didn't commit.

In e-mail messages to friends, family and state employees, two of Phipps' sisters say federal prosecutors threatened to prosecute Phipps' husband and father, former Gov. Bob Scott, and to force her to sell the family farm. The e-mail messages, recently obtained by The News & Observer, say the witnesses who testified against Phipps at her October trial were also pressured to lie.

And Phipps, who declined to testify in her own defense, wrote to friends in a holiday letter that she has not been allowed to tell her side of the story.

Her sisters wrote that the only time Phipps lied was the moment she entered her guilty plea.

"Just as Meg perjured herself and pleaded to crimes she didn't commit in order to lighten her sentence, [the witnesses] must have been willing to perjure themselves," Jan Scott, a younger sister, wrote to friends soon after the trial. "I still marvel that the US Attorney considers using family as a threat for pleas an ethical practice. ... I marvel that the US Attorney will allow people to perjure themselves to 'prove' their case."

Prosecutors said Phipps, who was elected in 2000 and resigned in June, took tens of thousands in illegal cash contributions from vendors seeking work at the N.C. State Fair, which she oversaw. They also say she authorized illegal debt payments and schemed to cover up her campaign's illegal activity.

She is set to be sentenced in federal and state courts in March. A state jury found her guilty of four state counts of perjury and obstruction of justice using the same evidence as the federal prosecutors.

Phipps is expected to spend a total of about five years in prison.

She did not return phone calls or e-mail requests for an interview. She did send out a Thanksgiving letter, expressing gratitude for the support of friends.

"Robert and the children are doing fine," Phipps wrote. I've done what I've had to do for them and our future."

Wade Smith, one of Phipps' attorneys, said he couldn't discuss the matter.

"It raises all sorts of questions that we would not take lightly," Smith said. "We cannot comment on this, yet."

The U.S. Attorney's office declined to discuss the messages, saying they would reserve comments for court or court filings.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby dismissed claims of Phipps' innocence. The evidence was overwhelming, not just testimony of her colleagues but Phipps' own e-mail, letters, bank records and taped statements, he said. Phipps was vigorously represented by two of the finest lawyers in the state, he said.

"It sounds like the complaint of family members blinded by love and loyalty," he said.

Another sister, Susan Sutton, sent an e-mail to friends in November complaining about perjured testimony and coercion. Contacted this week, Sutton said that the e-mail was sent to "people who were praying for Meg" and that she stands by its contents.

"She's innocent, absolutely," Sutton said. "The trial was stacked against her. They had a will to condemn."

Sutton said Phipps pleaded guilty because prosecutors threatened to indict her family and levy fines so big she would have to sell her family farm.

Wade Smith and his co-attorney brother, Roger, told her that she probably would be convicted in a federal trial and encouraged her to plead to get a lighter sentence, Sutton said. Her lawyers told her, "No matter how much we believe in you, we can't see you winning this," Sutton said.

"She has been up against a major, major machine," Sutton said. "She didn't want to miss out on important years of life with her children."

Phipps' children are junior high-school age.

Sutton said the witnesses who testified against Phipps -- including her former close aides, Weldon Denny, Linda Saunders, Mike Blanton and Bobby McLamb -- lied to protect themselves. She said prosecutors forced the witnesses to lie, just as they forced Phipps to plead guilty.

She said her sister's only crime was trusting her employees to handle her campaign finances, a defense that Phipps has used ever since her illegal campaign contributions were exposed two years ago. Sutton compared Phipps' indictment and trial to a McCarthy-era prosecution.

"We are sure that the true story's going to come out some day," Sutton said.

Phipps echoed that in her Thanksgiving letter.

"There is so much I want to say but I'm not allowed to do so yet just as I haven't been allowed to for over a year," Phipps wrote. "Someday my side will be told."

"Preposterous," says Willoughby, who prosecuted Phipps.

Under North Carolina law, the client has the final say whether to testify or offer evidence, not the defense attorney. As a lawyer, Phipps knows that, and was neither coerced nor muzzled, Willoughby said.

"It seems duplicitous to me to say, 'I refuse to testify,' and then complain that, 'My story is not told,' " Willoughby said. "She chose not to be a witness. There were lots of questions I would have liked to ask her under oath."