John Edwards seeks dismissal of case

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The News & Observer

Lawyers for John Edwards filed a barrage of court documents Tuesday asking a federal judge to dismiss criminal charges against the former U.S. senator and presidential candidate.

In hundreds of pages, the attorneys contend the charges against Edwards are unconstitutionally vague, that no crime occurred and even if one had, the government did not give him a "fair warning" that his conduct would violate campaign finance laws.

"While much can be said in questioning how Mr. Edwards conducted himself throughout this saga, the allegations in the Indictment that he violated campaign finance laws should not be among them," his attorneys said in one of the memoranda filed in court Tuesday. "The distinction between a wrong and a crime is at the heart of this case."

The lawyers also call the case an abuse of prosecutorial discretion. "This case is about politics," they contend.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/07/2005259/john-edwards-seeks-dismissal-of.html

[JJW]

1. I wonder how people who had their money stolen feel?

I'd be mad if money I donated to his campaign went to his mistress. Sure seems like a crime to me.

[zalinda]

7. I gave him what little money I had, 20 dollars,

and I'd do it again. He was the only person running who said ANY THING about poor people. Once he was out of the race, no one mentioned poor people again.

zalinda

[Township75]

9. So when Obama mentioned no boots to lace up in his nomination speech, who was he referring to?

?

[zalinda]

10. I have no idea.

He's said so many things that ended up not being true, I couldn't even guess.

zalinda

[No Elephants]

12. Comfortable shoes, no boots to lace up. Many words.

[undeterred]

14. But why would you do it again?

He was a total phony.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. +1000! Same here. I gave and would again and for the same reason as you.

:thumbsup:

[liskddksil]

21. +1

[No Elephants]

11. I am not sure anyone had money stolen to support Hunter.

My understanding is that the wealthy woman who donated money to takecare of Hunter knew exactly what the money was to be used for and filed a gift tax return. She believed in Edwards candidacy that much, even if he had cheated on his wife.

[trud]

22. can I get my money back from Obama? n/t

[snooper2]

2. Poor John Edwards, it must suck being you eh?

[rsmith6621]

3. Look all the trees that were removed..

...Again how does someone who can afford a spread like that represent MIDDLE CLASS VALUES???

[snooper2]

4. I'm sure that's a putting green by now-

He remembers his roots right?

His daddy was a poor supervisor at a textile mill...

[JJW]

5. The son of a mill worker.....

would realize what he did (stealing other people's money) was dishonest and a crime.

[zalinda]

29. So, let's see Clinton, Richardson, Biden

Dodd, Kucinich and Gravel all stole other people's money because none of them won?

zalinda

[lark]

17. He earned it?

John Edwards is one of the few politicians who did stand up for the working class as well as the poor. I'm glad that he was successful and made a ton of money getting greedy corporations to pay for their mistakes.

I'd rather have him any day than Obama who has only given us despair and no hope at all and very little change from Bush either.

[bitchkitty]

18. +1000

[tammywammy]

27. He stood up for the working class only when it became politically good for him

Look at his voting record or the fact that he worked at a hedge fund to "learn about poverty."

His actual actions didn't match what he said.

[zalinda]

34. Did you really know anything about him?

His high school teacher said that he would debate others after school and take the position for the under dog. He also had 3 o4 4 best friends (can't remember right now), who made a pact that they would all go to college, and if one slacked off, they would bring him back to the goal. They all went to college and all are successful, and they are all still best friends. One guy in the group is a black guy. Remember this is in a small town in South Carolina where the races never hung out together, and yet here was this group.

As for the hedge fund, haven't we learned that there was much more to the story than we knew in 2006/2007? Back then we just thought this was a way to get rich, but it turns out that there was much more to the story. That's what he was trying to find out. He was already rich, he didn't need to work, so why else would he be there except to find out how it all worked. And, he didn't stay there long.

This was a man who spent all night working on cases, making sure that he was better prepared than the other side. Do you know how he came to be a product liability lawyer? He worked at a law firm for a while and when he wanted to work on a real court case, they gave him a case that the entire office was certain could not be won. He made sure he knew every aspect of the case, he interviewed all the people involved himself, he worked late every night. He won the case.

This was a man who had other lawyers come into the court room to watch him when he was trying a case. He never made promises to his clients he couldn't keep, and he never took money up front. If he won, only then would he get paid. The famous swimming pool drain case, was a case that no other lawyer would take, because it was a loser, but he took it and won.

All of the above was from interviews with people from his life. He truly worked his way out of that small town, working in the mill cleaning to working other various jobs while in college. He lived the American dream, nothing was handed to him.

And, the one thing I was absolutely certain of, was that he would work his ass off to keep his campaign promises. We've seen one of his favorite lines in action. "I think if you give drug companies and insurance companies and their lobbyists a seat at the table, they'll eat all the food."

zalinda

[Merlot]

28. So now only the poor can represent "middle class values"

and just what are those "values?" anyhow?

[zalinda]

8. This house was built for Elizabeth

she was a military brat and had moved so many times she really wanted something like an old southern mansion. She designed it, and he gave it to her. I think it was built after her first go around with cancer.

As for the trees, I talked to someone from SUNY ESF (boyfriend of a friend) and was told that many times when building among trees, the trees die. That is was best if the trees were cut down and new ones replanted. This conversation came up when I noticed a building site that had all it's trees cut down, and was complaining about it. If I remember correctly, he said that the trees may look healthy for a few years but that the root system gets compromised and dies, and that a healthy 'looking' tree could fall over on to the house on a windy day, because the root structure couldn't hold the tree in place any longer.

zalinda

BTW, FDR was rich and lived in a mansion, but we don't trash him for it.

[trud]

24. FDR

was a great, effective President. Being rich isn't a crime. Being a parasite is.

[trud]

23. why the desert around the house? n/t

[Beacool]

6. One word to describe Edwards: weasel

Actually I thought of a few others: liar, hypocrite, two-faced, cheat, etc.

x(

[saras]

13. and you wonder why Dems can't find any good candidates for anything...

...but I wouldn't to ruin anything by suggesting that people actually read the article, or learn anything about the situation.

As in the case of every politician who does not actively campaign on a policy of invading others' sex lives, his sex life is his own business. Anyone that tries to tell me about it is working against my better interests.

The fact that he got money from two wealthy supporters, and NOT campaign contributions, also seems to have slipped by. Or the fact that he is actually taking responsibility for, and taking care of, the woman. I mean, she could just be suicided.

I actually can't think of any world-class politician that I have any respect for, living or dead, whose sex life I would either make public (Jimmy Carter) or defend in public (anyone else). If it doesn't involve violations of consent, it isn't my business.

It was a right-wing hatchet job all the way around. It's not clear to me why so much of DU is so prudish - perhaps post-HIV jealousy?

[undeterred]

15. People want to elect someone they can trust.

And when you are looking at character, it becomes impossible to make an arbitrary distinction between public and private. Edwards was having an affair and it was "private". So he was lying about it. That involved forcing everyone who worked for him to lie also or to quit. If you are working on someone's campaign and they put you in the position of having to tell lies to protect you, you lose respect for that person.

If you are a voter and you find out that spmebody cheats on their spouse most people wonder else they lie about. If I found out that I was working my butt off for a candidate and he was cheating on his or her spouse - or doing something else unethical - I'd quit.

[zalinda]

19. And yet, Obama lied to the ENTIRE state of Illinois

and he is glorified? Then he lied to the ENTIRE world about his intentions in Iraq, and he got a fucking PEACE PRIZE! He has lied so many times that I've lost count. It may be important to you that he hasn't lied to his wife (as far as we know), but it is more important when that politician lies and it affects ME.

BTW, Elizabeth forgave him, and they took a trip together to Japan before she died, he he was at her bedside when she died.

Oh, and from http://www.menstuff.org/issues/byissue/infidelitystats.html

Conservative infidelity statistics estimate that “60 percent of men and 40 percent of women will have an extramarital affair. These figures are even more significant when we consider the total number of marriages involved, since it's unlikely that all the men and women having affairs happen to be married to each other. If even half of the women having affairs (or 20 percent) are married to men not included in the 60 percent having affairs, then at least one partner will have an affair in approximately 80 percent of all marriages. With this many marriages affected, it's unreasonable to think affairs are due only to the failures and shortcomings of individual husbands or wives."

So, apparently 60% of men and 40% of women should never run for public office.

zalinda

[undeterred]

26. I don't forgive Obama for lying about shit either.

He totally pisses me off. But lying about intentions is something much harder to judge someone for. Probably almost everyone intends to be a better spouse or politician than they are actually able to be.

Not sure that Elizabeth totally forgave him- she cut him out of a lot of things too.

[trud]

33. zalinda

I don't know what those statistics come from, but I am sure half my family members are not sleeping around.

As to Elizabeth having forgiven him, my impression is that she was trying to keep an air of civility for the children's sake.

[trud]

32. jealousy

yeah, I really find the people these creeps are involved with desirable, not.

[bitchkitty]

20. Best of luck to him.

I'm surprised, not as many pearl-clutchers as I expected when I opened this thread.

[Taverner]

25. To be honest, I hope it settles

[struggle4progress]

30. I'm over it. But it was really too bad how that ended. Some really top-notch folk

worked really hard to put him into the Senate. And a bunch of good people put themselves on the line for his 2008 campaign, too -- quit jobs and moved to NC and worked crazy hours for the campaign and crashed on the floor in the office when they were too tired to go home safely and such

He got some money and lots of time from me. I was in complete denial about his meltdown for a while. I don't bear him any ill-will: the story just makes me kinda sad. He's a talented ambitious man. I don't know what he was thinking

[No Elephants]

31. John Edwards was a founding member (year 2000) of the Senate New Democrat Coalition.

So, who the heck knows what he would have done if he had been elected.

Most Senate members don't join groups like that, not because they are more liberal, but because they don't want to lose points with anyone.