Breaking News: Justice Department Drops Case Against John Edwards
As many expected, federal prosecutors are dropping all charges against John Edwards after his corruption trial ended last month in a deadlocked jury. A U.S. Justice Department statement said prosecutors will not seek to retry Edwards on five unresolved counts.
Last month, a North Carolina jury acquitted Edwards on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five other felony counts and the judge declared a mistrial.
The Washington Post:
Edwards’ lawyers — Abbe Lowell, Allison Van Laningham and Alan W. Duncan — said in a joint statement that they are pleased with the government’s decision not to seek a second trial that they believe would have had the same outcome.
“While John has repeatedly admitted to his sins, he has also consistently asserted, as we demonstrated at the trial, that he did not violate any campaign law nor even imagined that any campaign laws could apply,” they said. “We are very glad that, after living under this cloud for over three years, John and his family can have their lives back and enjoy the peace they deserve.”
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Wow. What does it take to get caught these days? If you’re rich that is.
slamfu: it helps if you’ve actually violated the statute you’re charged under.
Edwards was charged not with being a scumbag (which he is, but it’s not a crime) but with violating campaign finance laws for checks that didn’t go to his campaign or to him personally, one of which wasn’t cashed until he’d dropped out.
The prosecution thought they could make Edwards look bad enough that the jury would ignore the law. I’m as furious at Edwards as anyone, but I’m glad they didn’t take the bait.
Thanks for clearing the air, JDRhoades
St. Peter, please be alert.
It did not help that this was uncharted territory for the prosecution. There was a lot of ambiguity about the letter of the law. Prosecuting candidates for misuse of campaign donations is a losing battle
They went into this trial knowing there were many things that would be hard to prove. Local news in Greensboro, NC reported nightly on the testimony and how it did not prove anything illegal under the campaign finance laws. Kind of like a “trial balloon” to see haw the law could be applied and where changes to strengthen it is needed.
No we wait for the multi million dollar case for Roger Clemmons lieing to congress to conclude. That one takes the cake as congress can lie to us daily and nothing happens, but tell them an untruth and you can go to jail for years. Doesn’t seem fair to me.