John Edwards Trial | featured news

Federal prosecutors have filed an order dismissing the remaining criminal charges against John Edwards.

Former U.S. Senator John Edwards was acquitted on Thursday on one count of taking illegal campaign contributions and the judge declared a mistrial on five other counts because the jury was deadlocked.

With the jury at the John Edwards trial set to begin deliberations for a seventh day on Tuesday, speculation grows that the 12 people charged with deciding the fate of the former presidential candidate may be deadlocked.

The jury in former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' corruption trial will begin a third day of deliberations Tuesday after asking to take another look at a batch of exhibits from the four-week case.

Attorneys for John Edwards indicated Tuesday their case was winding down, but they were not yet saying whether they will call to the witness stand the former presidential candidate or his mistress....

As more sordid details emerge in the trial of former U.S. senator John Edwards (D), one question lingers: Why on earth did this man, who had so much going for him, risk everything — including a shot at the presidency of the United States — to have an affair with a woman best described as unpredictable? It’s hard not to wonder, as details are being recounted in a North Carolina courtroom of the frantic efforts to stash Edwards’s pregnant mistress from his dying wife (and the rest of the world) and how Edwards hit up a 101-year-old heiress for more money even as he was being investigated for campaign finance violations (for which he is now on trial).

The testimony tracks with news reports that Obama's campaign had suspicions about Edwards and Hunter early on, and were also astonished that Edwards sought to angle his way into the Attorney General's job, or even the vice presidential slot. It never came close to happening.

As prosecutors head into the final week of their case, the issue of John Edwards’ mindset looms large. During week two of the trial, Cheri Young, wife of former Edwards’ aide Andrew Young, along with former Edwards staffers, described a reckless, feckless Edwards who -- thanks to his extramarital affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter -- imperiled his campaign, destroyed his marriage and nearly ruined another, that of the Youngs. Time and again, the testimony brought to mind one phrase: What was he thinking?!

John Davis, a former personal assistant to John Edwards, testified Thursday about answering a knock on his hotel door and being told by a campaign videographer that she and Edwards were in love.

The wife of a former aide to John Edwards rebuffed questions Tuesday about whether she had any incentive to lie to hurt the former presidential candidate. "Sir, I'm here to tell the truth about my experiences, about my life," Cheri Young said in response to one of Edwards' defense lawyers. "It was a lie when we accepted paternity for your client and that is why we are here today."