Thread: John Edwards charged in felony indictment over affair, mismanagement of campaign funds

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

John Edwards Jury Delayed by Mystery Note

http://gma.yahoo.com/john-edwards-ju...opstories.html

comments

I suspect this jury has already caused a mistrial. Whatever they do there will be an appeal.

John Edwards on mistrial: ‘While I do not believe I did anything illegal, I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong’
By Dylan Stableford | The Ticket – 5 hrs ago.

John Edwards appeared thankful outside the federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday, after the jury corruption trial said that it could not agree on a verdict for five of six counts, forcing U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles to declare a mistrial. The one count the 12-member jury agreed on--count three--was related to money given to Edwards by Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a wealthy Texas heiress. The jury found Edwards not guilty of that count. "I think those jurors were an examplar for what juries are supposed to do in this country," Edwards, a former attorney, said. "They were very, very impressive."

Earlier Thursday, Eagles asked the jury to continue deliberations and come to a unanimous decision on the remaining five counts, but the jury returned without one.
Outside the courthouse, Edwards--flanked by his attorney, Abbe Lowell, his daughter Cate and his two elderly parents--spoke for several minutes and remained mostly composed. "I want to make sure everyone hears from me," Edwards said. "While I do not believe I did anything illegal, or ever thought that I was doing anything illegal, I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong."

"There is no one else responsible for my sins," he continued. "I am responsible--none of the people who came to court and testified are responsible, nobody working for the government is responsible. I am responsible. It is me and me alone."

Edwards appeared to choke up before he spoke about Frances Quinn, his four-year-old daughter with Hunter. "My precious Quinn, who I love more than any of you can ever imagine," the former senator said.

Edwards had been charged with conspiracy, four counts of receiving illegal campaign contributions and one count of making false statements for allegedly soliciting and secretly spending over $925,000 to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer, during the 2008 presidential election. He faced up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if he had been convicted on all counts. The jury began deliberations on May 18 after a month of testimony that covered the sordid details of Edwards' affair with Hunter, the elaborate cover-up and campaign finance law.

Prosecutors said Edwards knew exactly what he was doing in 2008 when he used nearly $1 million in campaign funds to cover up his affair with Hunter.

Lawyers for the former presidential candidate claimed the payments from Mellon and trial lawyer Fred Baron were intended as personal gifts, not political contributions, to shield Edwards' wife from learning of Hunter's pregnancy with his child. Elizabeth Edwards, who was battling cancer at the time, died in 2010.

The defense argued that while he may have been a "bad husband," he did not violate any federal laws. "This verdict reflects the struggle that this jury appears to have had in finding some clear cut evidence of criminality," Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor and partner at McCarter & English, wrote in an email. "Despite the government's best efforts, the defense was able to appeal to the jurors' sense of fair play and justice even when dealing with an extremely unsympathetic defendant whose credibility was severely damaged by his own conduct."

"However morally reprehensible the conduct [was] here," Mintz added, "they could not agree that it added up to a criminal violation."

Edwards did not testify during the trial, nor did Hunter, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., with Frances Quinn.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/j...183230275.html

All i can say is children, hide your wealthy momma from this one. Politician and lawyer, My husbands grandfather always said, "If they ain't crooked when they go in, they're crooked when they come out"

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Rielle Hunter's memoir details affair, aftermath
By MEG KINNARD | Associated Press – 2 hrs 57 mins ago...



When John Edwards faced the prospect of an indictment that could put him behind bars, he calmly told his mistress he would probably wind up in a low-security prison in Virginia more like a country club than a jail. She quickly told him she and their daughter would move there to be near him if that happened.

Rielle Hunter details their phone call just days before his indictment in her new memoir, purchased by The Associated Press ahead of its release.

"What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me," also includes Rielle Hunter's mixed views on Edwards' parenting of their daughter Quinn and descriptions of Elizabeth Edwards' outbursts. At the end of the book, Hunter says she still has romantic feelings for Edwards but doesn't know how their relationship will turn out.

The book also provides a window into Edwards' psyche as federal prosecutors began their case against him. Days before his indictment Hunter asked: "So if you went to jail, what kind of jail would it be? One of those country clubs?"

"He said, 'Yeah.'"

"'Where?'" she asked.

"'Probably Virginia.'"

"So Quinn and I will move to Virginia. Virginia is a great state."

The only low-security federal prison in Virginia is in Petersburg, where former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry once served time.

On the day of the indictment, the two shared a surreal phone call as a newspaper reporter banged on her door in Charlotte, while the man she refers to as "Johnny" throughout the book called her cell phone to say that he was also being pursued. "'I've got helicopters circling my house,' Johnny said."

New York publishers had said they were not interested in Hunter's book, citing her negative image, so it is instead being released through a Dallas-based boutique publisher, BenBella Books, on June 26.

Federal prosecutors spent a year prosecuting Edwards, culminating in a six-week trial that ended last month. Jurors acquitted Edwards on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five other felony counts. The judge declared a mistrial. Federal prosecutors then said in a court order earlier this month that they wouldn't retry Edwards, and the charges against him were dropped.

Neither Edwards nor Hunter testified.

Prosecutors had accused Edwards, 59, of masterminding a scheme to use about $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy political donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.

The trial publicized intimate details about Edwards' affair with Hunter as his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer. Much of the book describes their unfolding relationship and the lengths to which Hunter went to sneak in and out of Edwards' hotel rooms, even after her contract as a videographer ended. She also describes paparazzi chases after news of their affair broke.

Hunter writes that Edwards is a doting father when he's around their daughter but that his obligations to his other children curtail their time together. The book features several pictures of the father and daughter together, smiling. Immediately after his trial, Edwards said during a news conference — with his adult daughter, Cate, by his side — that he loved Quinn "more than any of you can ever imagine." Quinn is now 4 and lives with Hunter in Charlotte. "He is a great dad to her when he is with her," Hunter writes.

http://news.yahoo.com/rielle-hunters...164452630.html

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What really happened? Some hooker looking for a fat cat screwed a married man, made sure she got pregnant so her hands were safely in the money and accidently helped expose a cheating POS. Two scummy gutter tramps who deserve each other, sadly who both have children that got dragged through their gutter lifestyle. Neither one of these two are worth the price of the ink in her book. I hope she gets what she has coming.

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I won't be buying the book. If I want to know anymore about a deceitful, philandering, low-life and his consort, all I have to do, is look back on my own life...lol... This woman really needs to sit down and shut up for the sake of her daughter.

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This tramp destroyed a dying woman's last days. I can only imagine the hurt that she was going through physically and emotionally. Now the Jezebel wants to make money off the hurt and pain she caused another. She should be somewhere praying and begging God for forgiveness.

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I feel bad for her child who will grow up to read this about her early life.

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Is that Rielle in that picture?? Now that's a heck of a job of photo shopping!!

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I would not be surprised if this 2 cent hooker poses spread eagle for Playboy next to a bunch of Angry Bird dolls.

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The Edwards camp must have paid her deeply to hold off on the release of this book. The timing is quite impeccable, since the trial just got finished and he's not going to prison. Edwards nor Hunter chose to testify about any of these things that are in the book and with the system already saying there won't be a re-trial, it's safe for her tell all book. This book could have probably put him in the clinker and threw away the key. Money can buy you freedom in most cases. I am sorry that Mrs Edwards had to die with a broken heart.

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She has reached a new low. Destroys a marriage and now wants to profit from it. I would not buy her book to build a fire!

This tramp destroyed a dying woman's last days. I can only imagine the hurt that she was going through physically and emotionally. Now the Jezebel wants to make money off the hurt and pain she caused another. She should be somewhere praying and begging God for forgiveness.

AMEN!

:shock: looking for publicity ...

Rielle Hunter and John Edwards Split Up
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and KATIE KINDELAN | Good Morning America – 3 hrs ago.

Rielle Hunter and John Edwards ended their controversial relationship last week, just days after her new book debuted and she went public about how they met, hid their affair and had a baby girl together. "We are a family, but as of the end of last week John Edwards and I are no longer a couple. Not at all," Hunter told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America."

When asked if she still loved Edwards, Hunter replied, "I do."

Stephanopoulos asked if Edwards still loved her and she said, "You have to ask him. I think he does."

Nevertheless, the couple split, she said, worn down by the scrutiny and pressure brought on by their high profile affair that began while Edwards was running for the 2008 presidential nomination. "For me, for my part in it, it's because I'm no longer interested in hiding, hiding our relationship, not living out," she said. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we've had a lot of media scrutiny. It's complicated and it's hard. It wears you down after a while."

Hunter wouldn't say whether one of them made the break. "That's private. We decided together to end it. It's hard. It's painful," she said.

The interview began with Stephanopoulos asking Hunter, who has had a baby girl named Frances Quinn with Edwards, whether knowing what she knows now, would she do it all again. "Would I do that again?" repeats Hunter almost incredulously. "No way. Absolutely not."

The break-up came after the publication of Hunter's revealing memoir "What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me." The book revealed that Edwards had several mistresses before her, but it also angered people for her harsh criticism of Edwards' wife Elizabeth, who was dying of cancer at the time of their affair. Elizabeth Edwards has since died of the disease.

Hunter said that people should read the book before criticizing her. "There is so much misinformation and distortion about this story and people form opinions without knowing what really happened," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/rielle-hunter-...opstories.html

comments

The excitement was hiding in the shadows ... now that the allure is gone ... so is the "relationship".

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She is complaining about "a lot of media scrutiny"? It seems to me that she is the one who has sought the scrutiny by giving interviews, posing for photos, and writing a book. Does she really mean theres a lot of public disapproval? Well, duh.

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I would not waste a dime let alone put one in her pocket. I won't be "reading" her tell-all book, EVER. I hope now Elizabeth can rest in peace knowing they are no longer together and that both of them are miserable. John's oh so promising political career and the mistress ending up with nothing...seems like justice has finally been achieved.

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Well, when you tear a family apart, rip the character of the deceased wife apart, share with the world with such pride that you've done these things, IT SHOULD BE HARD! I think she and Edwards are both morally bankrupt, selfish pigs, and deserve all the misery, and disappointment life has to offer. I just feel sorry for the children.

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REALLY?!! I can't believe that a relationship built on lies and deception could ever come to an end, WHAT A SHOCKER!!!

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hold on: "we've had a lot of media scrutiny." Who generated all that, going on TV to disclose every personal detail of your pathetic life except which brand of TP you buy? And that's only bc Charmin hasn't offered an endorsement deal.

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How come this crazy mistress from hell hasn't apologized to Elizabeth and her children?

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Apparently book sales were more important than her love for him. He just needed to keep her on a line until after the trial so she would not testify against him... case is over and so is the "relationship".

John Edwards considers opening law firm, hopes you forgot his past
12 hrs ago

Former North Carolina senator John Edwards is hoping the people of Raleigh have short memories (or forgiving hearts) as he considers opening a new law firm in the city later this year. After his White House aspirations were dashed in 2008 when a pesky tabloid exposed his extramarital affair with a staffer, Edwards then had to face six felony charges accusing him of using campaign funds to hide the affair. In 2012 he was acquitted of one of the charges and the jury was deadlocked on the other five. The former personal injury and malpractice attorney is due to speak at a conference titled "Historic Trials of the Century" this weekend, but we're not sure if his own is in the mix.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...-new-law-firm/