Plan B Forum

John Edwards indicted by North Carolina grand jury

By Michael A. Memoli

June 3, 2011, 7:22 a.m.
Reporting from Washington—

A North Carolina grand jury has indicted former Sen. John Edwards on criminal campaign finance violations in connection with a sex scandal.

Edwards, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 and a candidate for president in 2004 and 2008, was charged with four counts of illegal campaign contributions, one count of conspiracy and one count of false statements. The charges stem from a years-long investigation into whether Edwards used money from two supporters to cover up an affair with Rielle Hunter, a former campaign videographer with whom he had a child.

Prosecutors say the money from Edwards' supporters to Hunter constituted campaign donations because it furthered his political career. Edwards attorneys consider that an improper interpretation of campaign finance
laws, and that the case is a matter for the Federal Election Commission, not the courts.

"John Edwards has done wrong in his life — and he knows it better than anyone — but he did not break the law," his attorney, former White House Counsel Gregory Craig, told the Los Angeles Times last week. "The government's theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. It is novel and untested. There is no civil or criminal precedent for such a prosecution."

Edwards, 57, has reportedly been offered deals to lessen criminal penalties in return for admission of guilt, but he has refused to plead guilty to a felony offense.

Rumors of infidelity dogged Edwards' 2008 campaign; he repeatedly denied them. But in January 2010 he acknowledged that he was the father of Frances Quinn Hunter, now 3. His marriage to the late Elizabeth Edwards collapsed as a result.

The money Edwards is alleged to have used to cover up his affair came from his national campaign finance chairman, Fred Baron, who died in 2008, and banking heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, who is 100.

If you accept the idea that money given to Hunter was a "campaign contribution,"...

They just killed his political career...

He had any shreds of a political (or other) career left anyway, Keld?

Sue U wrote: This was a sad personal issue for all involved, but it was not an attempt to evade campaign finance laws.

Sue U wrote: There is no indication at all that she was going to go public; she didn't say a word until more than two years after Edwards had withdrawn from the campaign -- and that was only after everyone else had already talked and his career and marriage were destroyed.

Guinevere wrote:

Sue U wrote: This was a sad personal issue for all involved, but it was not an attempt to evade campaign finance laws.

I agree on the former, and the latter is now for the court to decide.

Guinevere wrote:As you have pointed out on many prior occasions, we have no idea what went on in the grand jury room, what facts were presented, and by whom they were presented. Clearly there was enough to convince a grand jury that there were sufficient facts, and a plausible legal basis for the charges.

"Ham sandwich" is a reference to a famous quote of NY Court of Appeals Judge Sol Wachtler, who said any decent prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.

Sue U wrote:I don't think Guin and I are having a fight, just a slight difference of opinion; the law was not written to account for this set of facts specifically, so it's a matter of interpretation whether this situation amounts to a violation. I just think the peg is too square for the round hole; Guin thinks it might fit.