GREENSBORO, N.C., (Reuters) – Former U.S. Senator John Edwards was acquitted yesterday on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions, and the judge declared a mistrial on five other counts because the jury was deadlocked.
The jury’s decision came on the ninth day of deliberations and marked yet another dramatic turn of events for the one-time politician who rose to become the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee in 2004, only to see his career ruined by scandal four years later. As the jury’s verdict was read, Edwards, who did not testify in the nearly six-week-long trial, slumped back in his seat in relief.
Later, standing in front of the federal courthouse in Greensboro, North Carolina, the state he represented in the U.S. Senate from 1999 to 2005, Edwards said he never broke the law.
“While I do not believe I did anything illegal, or ever thought I was doing anything illegal, I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong, and there is no one else responsible for my sins,” he said, flanked by his parents and oldest daughter, Cate. “I am responsible, and if I want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins, honestly I don’t have to go any further than the mirror. It’s me. It is me and me alone.”
Federal prosecutors did not make clear whether they would seek another trial for Edwards, who they accuse of taking funds from two wealthy donors during his 2008 presidential campaign to keep voters from learning he was cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, who died in 2010.
Jurors found Edwards not guilty of accepting illegal campaign contributions from one of those supporters, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, in 2008.
But they were deadlocked on a similar count of receiving illegal campaign money from Mellon in 2007; two counts of accepting illegal campaign money from friend and supporter Fred Baron; one count of conspiring to solicit illegal campaign funds; and one count of failing to report the donor payments as campaign contributions.
The defense said all along that the supporters’ money was meant as a personal gift to shield Elizabeth Edwards from her husband’s indiscretions, not to influence the election.
