Jury set to deliberate in case of ex-Senator Edwards By Wade Rawlins | Reuters – 11 mins ago...
GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - A jury in North Carolina is set to begin deliberations on Friday morning in the federal political corruption trial of former U.S. Senator John Edwards, who is charged with accepting excessive campaign funds to conceal his extramarital affair while he ran for president.
"Even with all John has done — his family, legal career, running for president, this is, of course, the most important day of his life," Edwards' defense attorney Abbe Lowell said on Thursday as both prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered closing arguments.
The jury must decide if Edwards, 58, orchestrated a cover-up to keep voters from learning of his pregnant mistress during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Prosecutors say the plot resulted in more than $900,000 from two wealthy donors being secretly funneled to Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, and his aide Andrew Young, who during the campaign falsely admitted paternity for the baby Edwards had fathered.
"Mr. Edwards clearly knew the law and decided to violate it to salvage his campaign," prosecutor Robert Higdon told jurors on Thursday. "We believe overwhelming evidence has been presented that will allow you to convict Edwards on all counts."
The defense says Edwards, who maintains his innocence, did not seek or accept the money. They say the payments were personal gifts meant to keep the affair and Hunter's pregnancy concealed from Edwards' cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth.
"As many are his moral wrongs, he has not committed a legal one," Lowell said Thursday. "There is not the remotest chance that John violated federal campaign laws, let alone felonies."
The former senator for North Carolina faces a total of six felony counts on charges including conspiring to solicit the money, receiving more than the $2,300 allowed from any one donor and failing to report the payments as contributions.
Each count carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Poster Comment:
So will he end up in jail, or will one of his political buddies come riding to the rescue to save his perv ass??? (Somehow I doubt he will spend a single day in jail because "he's special")....
