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Subscribe to RSSFormer presidential candidate John Edwards has been cleared of all remaining finance corruption charges. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Former presidential candidate John Edwards’ legal troubles are over. Judge Catherine Eagles on Wednesday signed an order dismissing all five counts on which a jury had been unable to reach a verdict. The government had asked that the charges be dismissed, eliminating the threat that Edwards could face another trial.
A jury on May 31 acquitted Edwards on one felony count of receiving illegal campaign contributions, but deadlocked on the remaining five counts he misused money from two wealthy donors to hide his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, while he ran for president.
Jurors acquitted Edwards on a charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions, involving $375,000 from elderly heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon in 2008. He had also been charged with illegally accepting $350,000 from Mellon in 2007, other donations from wealthy Texas attorney Fred Baron, filing a false campaign finance report and conspiracy.
See previous coverage of John Edwards’ trial
Chuck Burton / AP
John Edwards
“The jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict on five of the six counts of the indictment, however, and we respect their judgment,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said in a prepared statement. “ In the interest of justice, we have decided not to retry Mr. Edwards on those counts."
In a statement, Edwards' lawyers said:
"As we stated in our motions and arguments in court, the novel theory of campaign law violations charged by the Justice Department is not a crime. It should be addressed, if at all, by the Federal Election Commission, which our evidence showed seems to have agreed with our views on the law. 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. We are confident that the outcome of any new trial would have been the same."
Hunter earlier this month announced she's coming out with a tell-all book. People Magazine reported the book, titled "What Really Happened," will hit stores June 26. In it, Hunter says the two are still in love.
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Now him, Rielle and their daughter can ride off into the sunset together. He may not have gotten his just deserves here on earth, but he will when he meets his maker. Elizabeth will be laughing as he is thrown into hell for what he did to her.... Rest in Peace Elizabeth....
Another day that our failed government wasted millions on b.s. that could have gone toward helping struggling americans.
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Well i did say that he would be aqquited of all charges.
How is Lance Amstrong going to hold up against the fearless Fed .
Hunter says that the two of them "are still in love" and that may likely not be true, especially after June 26 when her tattle tale book hits the public stores.
It is extremely difficult to feel any sense of sympathy for Edwards or Hunter. Both lacked any moral compass and believed that a different set of rules applied to them. Rich supporters like Bunny Mellon threw money at them because she considered them "amusing" like monkeys in a cage [apologies to monkeys].
underground sanity, Yes Bunny threw her money at the situation; however, it IS HER money to do what she wants with it.
Until we make having affairs while married are illegal, this behavior will continue. How will this harm America? No way, period. Criminalize cheating on your spouse. If you are a law abiding citizen, you will have no problem with this law.
Jeff.....What we need to do is legalize prostitution so people don't have affairs.
Someone should charge Holder with Misuse of tax dollars for allowing this trial to even take place...What a total waste of taxpayer money. They knew going in they were on shaky ground when the former head of Congressional committee who helped write the campaign law said no crime had been committed. But as usual someone with a political agenda ignored the advice and common sense and proceeded anyway....Here's hoping for some real change in 2012......Obama for street sweeper it's the only job he's qualified for
GOD BLESS AMERICA ! A no good POS gets off FREE Just like OJ ! This is proof positive that the rich and connected will get away with crime. We the citizenry (common folks) go to prison, get fined, lose our property, are "policed" to make sure we are not terrorists; our civil and constitutional rights are trashed for the smallest infractions "of the law". It is now painfully obvious If you make the law then you are above the law and do not have to adhere to them!
A sleazebag's political career is destroyed and justice was served (because no actual crime was committed). This is a win for the American justice system.
Rest in peace Mr. Edwards. May the hate mongers find new prey.
And to think he wanted to be John Kerry's latex salesman.
Thank goodness he will be out of the futture now.
Back to the definition of "IS" "IS"!
Typical Democrat!
Well kiddies, I'm an independent republican (which means I'm an independent, and not registered as a republican, but I haven't found anything I like about putz democrats for the past 30+ years), and I thought Edwards was getting screwed!
He "is what he is" and cut from the Bill Clinton cloth, but he was getting royally phoequed in this process, so I'm glad he got off and can move on with his life!
If only we can dispose of the raharshole at 1600, we'll all be better off!
Can we now stop the procrastination and finally start going after the bankers and Wall Street manipulators who ruined the economy or are both parties holding off until they get their playoffs, I mean campaign contributions. Edwards was not even small potatoes; he was at best a media distraction.
...federal prosecutors couldn't make a case against ted stevens, either! where do these clowns go to school? and who is vetting these cases before they go to trial?
Obviously money can buy anything.. Totally disgusting, dirt bag and degenerate...Not unusual to have an affair and father a child, but while your wife is fighting cancer and fighting for her life, you lowlife scumbag.
Guess you could use " low life scumbag" to describe John McCain who was a serial cheater. His faithful wife's reward for waiting for him and taking care of the kids while he was a POW was to be dumped for a millionairess in Arizona, whose Daddy was a beer baron, and who financed McCain's political career.
sure is nice to be a politician where you are above the law. oh thatas right they make the laws to serve themselves.
Finally. Now, can you make Lisa Myers go away? So tired of seeing her smug, pompous attitude on everything she reports on. If you listen closely, that's a "tsk tsk" you hear when she is not actively speaking.
This should make Edwards a prime candidate for President the next time around. Clinton is the poster boy for the Democratic Party of what you can get away with and still run for office.
How does Mr.Clinton's person behavior under his desk have anything to do with his fitness for office? I didn't understand it then, and I still don't understand it. We might have better candidates for elected office if the media and the public would stay out of their bedrooms. Bush, in my opinion, committed more crimes than lying about a blow job, but he was never prosecuted either. Both Cheney and Bush committed SEC crimes right before they were elected for which neither of them were prosecuted. The only President who probably did not commit crimes was probably Jimmy Carter, and he wasn't well liked until well after his presidency.
I would rather have a President who f###s an intern, than one who f###s the country like Bush did and Romney will if he gets the chance.
Plain and simple -- Waste Fraud, and Abuse of taxpayer money to prosecute this case in the first place. Only problem is there is no one to tell the government it was a worthless case that never should have been addressed in the beginning. Our tax dollars wasted.
Think about it...
Remember that he was found innocent on one count which my local news never mentioned. Never mentioned that he was found innocent of one of the charges. They mentioned the hung jury, all right, but nothing about finding him not guilty. This is not journalism, not news. It is a screening of news to filter out the things you don't want to report. If you don't like the laws, change them. If you don't like the fact that this man did something morally repugnant and was found not guilty for lack of evidence, work on changing the law to what they had in Nazi Germany. Then when you are charged with a crime and there is no evidence, you can thank yourself for letting the government put you in jail on no evidence. You are all a bunch of judgmental morons. Hunter should go to jail for tax evasion if she did not pay taxes on the gift money, but if the jury could not convict, then he gets away with it. That's justice. It really is. He will get his "reward in the afterlife (if you believe in it).
The day War Crimes charges are brought against Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby goes to jail, is the day Conservatives can talk about justice.BTW...there is already a Cheney suite in Hell...if you believe in the Afterlife.
Every time I see this slime ball (Edwards) I feel like I need to take a Silkwood shower.
there was a chance for a minute that one of the slick southern trial lawyers would finally get his.
He made a living scre*$ng before running for office and he looked to be getting scre$#d back, finally. Oh well. There is one court of justice none of us can escape. . .