Huh? She's talking about the fact that people claim her office was dangling 35 or even 50 years in jail over Aaron's head. But her office had extended a deal to Aaron which would involve only 6 month's jail time. They had even been open to one that involved no jail time, and JSTOR agreed but MIT did not. (Not that MIT can just tell the DA what to do, but if the DA presents a deal to the judge, and MIT doesn't back them up, that's more likely to be amended by the judge.)