WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — John Edwards admits he has "done wrong" and but is denying he broke the law. Federal prosecutors have charged him with using $925,000 in under-the-table campaign contributions to hide his mistress during his 2008 run for president. Edwards was indicted on six felony charges that he violated campaign finance laws.
Do these payments amount to contributions to the Edwards campaign? The Justice Department says they do because “public revelation of the affair and pregnancy would destroy his candidacy.” But Mr. Edwards’ campaign lawyer says that, had anyone bothered to ask her advice at the time, she would not have considered the payments to constitute campaign contributions. Scott Thomas, a former Federal Election Commission chairman retained by the Edwards legal team, said that in his view, “these payments would not be considered to be either campaign contributions or campaign expenditures within the meaning of the campaign finance laws” and that, if the matter came before the FEC, it “would conclude that these payments did not constitute a violation of the law, even as a civil matter,” no less a criminal one.
There is no question that I have done wrong, and I take full responsibility for having done wrong," the former North Carolina senator told a throng of reporters Friday afternoon after emerging from the federal courthouse in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that I have caused to others. But I did not break the law, and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law. Thank you all very much."
Edwards, whose daughter Cate, 29, stood behind him, did not take questions. Nor did he mention his wife, Elizabeth, who had incurable cancer when he began his affair. She died in December.
It is unclear what penalties Edwards might face if convicted, although the maximum for each count is five years, plus a $250,000 fine.
"As this indictment shows," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Lanny A. Breuer in a statement, "we will not permit candidates for high office to abuse their special ability to access the coffers of their political supporters to circumvent our election law.
According to the indictment, the result of a grand jury investigation that lasted more than two years, Edwards solicited and accepted approximately $725,000 from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, the 100-year-old banking heiress who is identified as "Person B," and more than $200,000 from the late Fred Baron, his national campaign finance chairman, identified as "Person D." Edwards, the indictment said, "failed to disclose these illegal contributions" to the Federal Election Commission.
Edwards' former aide, Andrew Young, was a key witness. He helped solicit the money, falsely claimed he was the father of Hunter's child, took his wife and three children into hiding with Hunter, and ultimately became an object of derision for his role.
Young was blamed for the scandal by Elizabeth Edwards. In a telephone interview in March 2010, as she wrote a new epilogue for her book "Resilience," Elizabeth Edwards said she believed that Young had orchestrated the cover-up, and had approached Mellon for the money. "I don't think they will indict anybody," she said. "I don't think there was a criminal offense here, unless it's fraud against Bunny Mellon."
She said her husband continued to maintain that he had had a one-night stand with Hunter and did not admit he fathered Quinn, now 3, until the couple was in therapy in summer 2009. The Edwardses separated in January 2010, days after John Edwards admitted publicly that he was the child's father.
Two months later, Elizabeth Edwards said she was still angry with her husband, but added, "I am completely at peace."
On Friday, Young's attorney, David Geneson, said that Young feels "vindicated."
Last year, Young wrote a book about the Edwards scandal, "The Politician." The indictment mirrors the tale he told. "The story is accurate," Geneson said. "The government has corroborated it." (In a separate case that is pending, Young is being sued for privacy invasion by Hunter, who is demanding the return of a purported sex tape she made with Edwards.)
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