Photo Credit: www.latimes.com
After startling revelations and nine days of deliberation, the deadlocked jury in the John Edwards trial returned a verdict yesterday, Thursday, May 31.
Facing the biggest scandal of his life, disgraced Edwards, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination and U.S. senator, was acquitted on one count, while a mistrial was declared for the other five.
The former North Carolina senator was charged with campaign finance fraud, as he allegedly spent $1 million of his campaign money to keep his extramarital affair under wraps. His mistress, Rielle Hunter, was a former campaign videographer, with whom he fathered Quinn, his now 4-year old daughter. The events surrounding the scandal date back to 2007. Great controversy was stirred especially due to the fact that his late wife, Elizabeth Edwards, was battling cancer at the time of the affair.
The trial revolved around campaign money Edwards had received from Texas lawyer Fred Baron and heiress Rachel Mellon. Prosecutors claimed that he used the money to pin the affair and Hunter’s pregnancy on his aide, Andrew Young. Edwards vehemently denied the affair and paternity of the child, only to admit to them later on.
Before leaving the courtroom yesterday, he vulnerably stated, “I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong,” but maintains that he is “not guilty of using campaign funs to hide those sins.”
The Justice Department did not specify whether a retrial will occur, although government sources state this is unlikely.
To read more about the trial, click here.
