Both, probably. But it was a stupid move, practically speaking. In general, no family holds to the oath more than the Genovese and they take plea deals all the time. Furthermore, while I'm sure Gotti took a lot of pride not taking plea deals, that led to a lot of his guys doing a lot more years in prison then they had to. Had his brother taken a plea deal, he would have been out of prison some time ago. Furthermore, regardless of Gotti holding to the oath, him getting caught yacking away on those tapes for hours on end - not to mention holding the weekly meetings at the Ravenite right in front of FBI cameras - did as much damage as any rat.