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Subscribe to RSSLawyers for John Edwards opened the defense Monday with a scathing attack on Edwards' former aide Andrew Young, who managed the affair cover-up. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.
ANALYSIS
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The list of John Edwards' gambles is legendary. It grew longer on Monday.
The dice roll came early in Alison Van Laningham's opening statement on behalf of the once-acclaimed lawyer and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee:
We are not here to debate whether a large amount of money flowed from Mrs. Mellon or Mr. Baron. We now know that it did. We are here to follow the path of that money, to follow the path, and the evidence will show that it ended up in the pockets of Andrew and Cheri Young and in the wood and in the stone and in the walls and in the roof of their $1.5 million house in Chapel Hill.
 Hampton Dellinger, a litigation partner with Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson of Charlotte and Chapel Hill, N.C., is former deputy attorney general of North Carolina and has taught election law at Duke University Law School. In 2008, he sought the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of North Carolina. |
(Those reference are to Fred Baron and Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, money from whom was used for the travel and living expenses of Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter and of political aide Andrew Young and his family in 2007 and 2008, while Edwards was seeking the Democratic nomination for president.)
And with that allegation — essentially that Young, not John Edwards, sought hundreds of thousands of dollars from Edwards' wealthy political supporters and then kept it for himself — United States v. Johnny Reid Edwards was transformed into Edwards v. Andrew Aldridge Young.
A common mistake in opening statements is for lawyers to overpromise. After underdelivering during the evidence phase of the case, the attorneys then get nailed by opposing counsel during closing arguments. In months of pretrial hearings and thousands of pages in written briefings, Team Edwards gave little indication that the attempted takedown of Young would take a Tracy Kidder-esque turn.
Hampton Dellinger, an election law expert reporting for msnbc.com, and Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington, go over the details of the John Edwards trial.
In retrospect, Edwards's intention to center his defense on Young's alleged pocket-lining and home-building helps explain his awkward last-minute addition of Van Laningham and her partner, Alan Duncan, to his trial team. The pair represented Rielle Hunter in her civil suit against Young over possession of the Edwards-Hunter sex tape. It's now clear they learned enough to level serious self-dealing allegations against the former aide to Edwards.
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Former Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, has faced public and private challenges throughout his life and career.
If Edwards can back up the allegations against Young, we're looking at a very different case. I have long thought the facts favored the government while the law (at least as applied before his prosecution) was on Edwards' side. If Edwards can successfully recast the facts and replace Young for himself as the principal architect and beneficiary of Mellon's and Baron's beneficence, the gamble in opening may look like a smart bet by trial's end.
A final thought: Given that Edwards thinks he has the goods on Young, I was surprised that Van Laningham's opening continued with the claim that Edwards' interest in keeping his affair quiet was centered on saving his marriage, not his 2008 campaign for president:
We are here to talk about the evidence that will show that John Edwards did not hide his mistress for any campaign purpose. He did it why anybody does it, to keep it from his wife and to keep from humiliating himself and his family.
To my mind — and to borrow a concept from labor and employment law — Edwards' interest in hiding his affair is a classic case of "mixed motive": He was trying to preserve the viability of both his marriage and his campaign.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Here we go again. Public prosecutors are about to botch another slam dunk case. And some people want the government to have more control of our lives. :/
I can't think of anyone I have been more disappointed in than John Edwards. I was planning to vote for him. When his bad behavior was discovered, to say I was shocked puts it mildly. One would have thought that anyone with a just a grain of decency would have, at the very least, waited until a terminal spouse was gone. This guy (or anyone like him) should adjust the behavior and pray/beg sincerely to their creator for forgiveness . I hear the hot place is very hot and the stay is a long one.
...and not one drop of water
". . . and all the boards did shrink."
Punditry will only get you so far. Eventually the mountain crumbles and the rats eating the foundation away are exposed. If you are poor, the rats get away with the cheese.
There is an inherent danger in pursuing a case that has no precedent.
The early bird gets the worm...but the SECOND RAT always gets the cheese
What a slimy scumbag. He abandoned his wife when she needed him the most. Selfish, pathetic loser! John Edwards deserves every bad thing that can happen to him.
Nobody is perfect . Each one of us is a mixture of good qualites and some perhaps not-so-good qualities .In considering our fellow man we should remember his good qualities and realise that his faults only prove that he is after all a human being.We should refrain from making harsh judgement of a person just because he happens to be a dirty, rotten, no-good son-of-a-*%#"
John Edwards embodies the sad tale of his own human nature.
Cross over John. Step into the light...
Larry Miles, good one.
the photo that shows his hands makes it appear that he bites his nails- that trait usually suggests underlying mental issues-
Who cares about all this sorrid stuff. They are all weak humans and all have acted inappropriately.
Referring to liberals of course...
Young goes to extremes to cover for Edwards, and this is how Edwards and his legal team treat him - throw him under the bus ?! What repugnant garbage every one of them is - and that includes the scum that paid to keep all of this quiet (and hidden from us during a presidential election).
Andrew Young lied about being the father of the baby for his own interest, and will lie on the stand, and in his talks, and in his book, and ... Regardless of the outcome of this trial with all the money wasted, the public will never know the truth. What a shame. Levi's had a "button your fly" teashirt which should be available at both conventions. This ruined Edwards life and his wife's last days.
This is such a sad story. Political parties and which party produces the most inmoral candidates isn't the issue on the story. It's about the misuse of campaign funds. I think Edwards is going to walk but I do feel for that poor little girl he fathered with his mistress. Notice that it's his daughter with Elizabeth who is standing by his side. While his morality as a husband and person is in question he seems to generally love his children and this shows he's a good father. The little one's need to be protected as they're so young and have already lost a parent. His oldest on the other hand is old enough to make her own decisions concerning her relationship with her father and while he treated her mom bad you can see she forgave him. I remember the distance between them at Elizabeth's funeral. She wouldn't even let him touch her and he walked behind his two young children after the funeral. Not with them. What love, strength, and compassion she has. A proud confident woman who was raised with love and integrity. My mom used to say that hatred only hurts the person who hates not those who you hate. Forgiving one who trespasses against you is a very hard thing to do. It means were human. I constantly struggle with this in my life and ask the lord for his help and forgiveness but this young woman by her actions feel me with shame.
Done with all the honesty of a "once-acclaimed lawyer and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee:"
If anyone in this country doubts why we are where we are as a country you don't need to look further than our poor excuse for "leaders". People who continually twist the laws to their own personal advantage and flaunt their contempt for the Constitution of the United States of America.
He ran for president before he was picked as "lurch's" running mate.
This is from a Daily News post in 2009 -- someone ought to forward it on to "opposing counsel"...Elizabeth Edwards KNEW about the affair -- she said so in her book. He was attempting to save his butt for the presidency...
Thursday, April 30, 2009, 6:30 AM
Campaign cad John Edwards' cheating ways made his wife, Elizabeth, sick to her stomach - literally.
After the former presidential hopeful confessed his betrayal, Elizabeth Edwards writes in her new book, "I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up."
Elizabeth, 59, who is terminally ill with cancer, speaks in far more detail than before about her husband's infidelity in her new memoir, "Resilience," due to be published May 12 by Broadway Books. A copy was obtained by the Daily News.
Despite feeling deeply deceived, Elizabeth Edwards nonetheless publicly stood by her husband's side, lending his candidacy the aura of a warm, loving family life.
But she had actually wanted him to quit the race to protect the family. Edwards admitted the hanky-panky to her days after declaring his candidacy in 2006 - almost a year before the National Enquirer reported it.
She was afraid of the destructive questions Edwards' affair with videographer Rielle Hunter would raise.
Read more: #ixzz1sydWR1v9
And the woman Rielle Hunter.... is going to be happily ever after?
Edwards is a creep, no doubt about it, and a very crafty ambulance chaser also.
Typical liberal azz. Will not take responsibility for anything...I expect him to blame lisbeth next because she contracted cancer. "All this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't gotten that cancer. "
Pretty low down to blame the very man who tried to take the fall for you...keep your Prez bid alive.
Just another scumbag atty. Just like hussein obama, the clintons and scores of other politicians on both sides.
Follow da money...........
Of course John Edwards is a sex-hungry scumbag, but we've had a myriad of sex-hungry scumbags inhabit the oval office; some good, some not-so-good. Yes it is most egregious to have an affair behind your wife's back while she's fighting cancer and perhaps for her life. Elizabeth (and I know this not a non-secular PC thing to state, but, may God rest her soul) Edwards was, for lack of a better term, a "shrew". Had Edwards the fortitude, he would have walked away from that woman years ago.
The real "scumbags" in this tabloid Shakespearean drama are Andrew Young and his wife; those two amoral pigs deserve to prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The Breck Boy will make some animal in the pen his good bitch! Since he found Ms. Hunter attractive he'll have no problem finding a really cute ape man in the slammer! Speaking of the 'slammer', tighten it up pretty boy!
Edwards is a disgusting pig, an ambulance chasing lawyer who cheated on a wife with terminal cancer, fathered a child and denied it. Hell is too good a place for him. But he will get his due when his time comes.
Nothing bad enough can happen to him. Here's hoping he does serious time in jail and gets to be very familiar with his bunk mates!
One thing positive about BP is that they did take responsibility in cleaning up the oil spill and did a good job. Unlike the US Government who still has to clean up after Hurrican Katrina due to the money that was not spent on fixing the levies before the disaster Bush decided to spend this money on other items when Clinton had reserved it for levies. They took care of the rich but the poor are still waiting for help, the place is still a mess..Also BP was not directly responsible for the spill as the riggs were on contract to another compnay and Haliburton. The government is quick to look at others but not itself , they lie to us all the time.
I am pretty certain that neither Andrew Young nor Rielle Hunter owned the homes they lived in at Governors' Club. Andrew was renting a home that had been built by a pro basketball player who had moved and put his home on the market. I think that Edwards' mistress lived in a place rented for her by others. Perhaps Fred Baron?
So the defense attorney who made these opening statements might have purposely misled the public as well as the jury. It was not long after the family of Andrew Young moved out that the house was sold to others. Is the defense lawyer describing a different home? It does not sound that way from the statement. I have often heard opening statements made and it seems the lawyer saying them does not have to prove they were true later. I do not really understand how that is allowed but apparently it is.
Andrew Young only rented the expensive home. He didn't buy it. It was in the same private, gated community as where Rielle Hunter was set up to live which is only miles from John Edwards' spread.
One aspect of it all I find very sad is that I speculate Elizabeth probably had donated eggs so she could have more children with John after the loss of their teenage son. She was about four years older than her husband and I think must have been close to 50 or so when she reproduced and therefore I'd think she was taking massive doses of estrogen to be able to keep the babies. Estrogen causes the breast cancer she had, I believe. So the tragedy is even more poignant if she caused her own death by trying to give him more children which perhaps she thought would mend wounds. Also, it might make for a better family photo for his campaign. Anyone who is interested in sleuthing and doing the math can check out exactly how old she was when she conceived and carried those younger kids. Isn't her oldest daughter in her thirties? Had she lived wouldn't Elizabeth be 64 or so now?
I think there were other rumors about John and women especially ones about him down at his beach place on Figure 8. I also heard rumors that he was very distant and mean to his wife when they occupied a home in DC during his stint as senator from NC. I believe that marriage may have been rocky for awhile.
I knew enough about him that I would not and did not vote for him. But, most people don't know anything other than what they read and see in the media and I am sorry for the good people of NC that he duped. He is a very good orator and rather mesmerizing and folks shouldn't beat themselves up too much if they fell under his spell. We all have been fooled by some politician here or there and by other folks too! LOl
Charming sociopaths get away with lots!