If this goes to trial (since Edwards and the feds still could/should settle), I predict he will be convicted on at least one count (just for being a scumbag as indicated above), he will serve jail time (at least two years), and he will lose his law license. Hey, he made his bed….
(“The Indictment of John Edwards,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 7, 2011)
Well, I was wrong: it went to trial, and he was not convicted on any of the six counts related to taking illegal campaign contributions and making false statements to federal authorities – all in furtherance of a conspiracy to conceal his extramarital affair and the lovechild it produced. He faced 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine.
Instead, after nine days of deliberation, a federal jury in North Carolina just acquitted Edwards on one count and deadlocked on five others. The judge declared a mistrial on the five counts, leaving it to prosecutors to decide whether or not to retry him on those. I don’t think they will.
And the post-trial statement he made on the court steps – flanked by his elderly parents and daughter Kate – may have disarmed prosecutors of any motivation to do so.
Here, in the most relevant part, is what he said:
I want to say a word about responsibility. And this is about me. I want to make sure everyone hears from me and from my voice that, while I do not believe I did anything illegal, or ever thought that I was doing anything illegal, I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong.
And there is no one else responsible for my sins. I am responsible – none of the people who came to court and testified are responsible, nobody working for the government is responsible. I am responsible. And if I want to find the person who should be accountable for my sins, honestly I don’t have to go any further than the [nearest] mirror. It is me and me alone.
(CNN, May 31, 2012)
Of course, it speaks volumes about his pathological narcissism, delusion, and conceit that he could not resist trampling all over this unprecedented, even if wholly scripted, bit of contrition by ending his statement with a shameless plug for his political rehabilitation, redemption, and return; specifically, by talking about God not being done with him yet and that he still wants to dedicate his life to helping the poor.
Beyond this it might interest you to know that the decision to prosecute Edwards was made by Republican appointees during the Bush Administration. This is why the taint of political persecution marred this trial from day one; and this fact alone might militate against a retrial.
Accordingly the real verdict in this case is that, even though a (temporarily humble) scumbag, John Edwards is one lucky son of a bitch.
Related commentaries:
The prosecution of John Edwards