John Edwards Faces Federal Investigation
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| Mon, 05-04-2009 - 11:43am |
Silly man to have an affair while running for office. Such arrogance to think it wouldn't come out. He was such a disappointment.
Complete article at link....
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1895585,00.html
His once-prominent political career is buried and the turmoil of his marriage is playing out in public. Now, John Edwards is facing a federal inquiry.
The two-time Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged Sunday that investigators are assessing how he spent his campaign funds — a subject that could carry his extramarital affair from the tabloids to the courtroom. Edwards' political action committee paid more than $100,000 for video production to the firm of the woman with whom Edwards had an affair. (See pictures from Edward's presidential campaign.)
The former North Carolina senator said in a carefully worded statement that he is cooperating.
"I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly," Edwards said in the statement. "However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true. We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved efficiently and in a timely matter."
While Edwards focused his comment on campaign funds, he also had a range of other fundraising organizations — including two nonprofits and a poverty center at his alma mater — that have come under scrutiny.
Chief among them was the PAC that paid Rielle Hunter's company for several months in 2006 for Web videos that documented Edwards' travels and advocacy in the months leading up to his 2008 presidential campaign. The committee also paid her firm an additional $14,086.50 on April 1, 2007.
Edwards acknowledged the affair with Hunter last year, months after dropping his presidential bid.
At the time of the 2007 payment, the PAC only had $7,932.95 in cash on hand, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. That day, according to the records, Edwards' presidential campaign paid the PAC $14,034.61 for what is listed as a "furniture purchase."
Willfully converting money from a political action committee for personal use is a federal crime.
The furniture money was one of just five contributions to the political action committee between April 1 to June 30, 2007. The other four were on June 30, the last day of the reporting period, including a $3,000 contribution from the wife of Edwards' finance chairman, Fred Baron.
Baron, Edwards' national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney, said last year that he quietly began sending money to Hunter to resettle in California. He said no campaign funds were used and that Hunter was not working for the campaign when he started giving her money.
Edwards has said he was unaware of the payments. Baron died of cancer in October.
U.S. Attorney George Holding has declined to comment and said he won't confirm or deny an investigation.
Kate Michelman, a former head of the abortion-rights group NARAL who advised the Edwards campaign, said she hopes there was no wrongdoing.
"All of us remain very saddened by what has happened to John, because he was right on the policies," Michelman said Sunday. "It remains a very sad occurrence for all of us. It's sad for John and Elizabeth, and this is just one more problem for them to deal with."
His wife, Elizabeth, who is terminally ill with cancer, will soon be releasing a book talking about the affair. In it, she writes that news of the affair made her vomit. She also describes Hunter as "pathetic." Â Â Â Â
Edited 5/4/2009 3:08 pm ET by libraone


Unfortunately, Eliot Spitzer is another such. He made the cover of Newsweek about a fortnight ago. http://www.newsweek.com/id/194590/page/1
IMHO, he expressed far too much self-exoneration and too little regret for how his actions hurt both his family (Silda especially), and people who saw him as a voice of integrity and principled law. There's something contemptible about a man who sees "tension" and "release" as ANY sort of explanation for for using a call girl's services. And when that man is in high public office, common though it may be, philandering and cheating on a devoted spouse is inexcusable.
So he can walk his dogs now without quite so much sensationalism. Whoopty doo dah.
Jabberwocka
Though no one made Eliot Spitzer seek services of a prostitute the FBI was already looking into his banking transactions. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the manner in which he was transferring money across state lines was fishy even though it was his own money.
I don't know how these wives "stand by their man" in front of the media & such. I would forgive a visit with a prostitute easier than a love affair.
I really admired him & his battles against the corrupt in the financial world. I hope he makes a comeback.
If he'd been a right-winger & announced Jesus had forgiven him he might still be governor.
It's my opinion he was outed after criticising the Bush admin. & others in high places. Here's an op-ed he wrote prior to his exposure. I'd posted on the board at the time.
Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime (Feb.2008)
How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html
Here's a later op-ed from Nov. 2008.
How to Ground The Street
The Former 'Enforcer' On the Best Way to Keep Financial Markets in Check.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111303634_pf.html
He took well deserved cases IMO. He took cases that few plaintiffs could have afforded to hire lawyer for without a lawyer willing to take it on contingency.
No one is all bad & few all good. We all have flaws.
>"In 1984 Edwards was assigned to a medical malpractice lawsuit that had been perceived to be unwinnable; the firm had only accepted it as a favor to an attorney and state senator who did not want to keep it. Nevertheless, Edwards won a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his client, who had suffered permanent brain and nerve damage after a doctor prescribed a drug overdose of the anti-alcoholism drug Antabuse during alcohol aversion therapy. In other cases, Edwards sued the American Red Cross three times, alleging transmission of AIDS through tainted blood products, resulting in a confidential settlement each time, and defended a North Carolina newspaper against a libel charge."<
>"In 1985, Edwards represented a five-year-old child born with cerebral palsy whose doctor did not choose to perform an immediate Caesarean delivery when a fetal monitor showed she was in distress. Edwards won a $6.5 million verdict for his client, but five weeks later, the presiding judge sustained the verdict but overturned the award on grounds that it was "excessive" and that it appeared "to have been given under the influence of passion and prejudice," adding that in his opinion "the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict." He offered the plaintiffs $3.25 million, half of the jury's award, but the child's family appealed the case and received $4.25 million in a settlement. Winning this case established the North Carolina precedent of physician and hospital liability for failing to determine if the patient understood the risks of a particular procedure."<
>"The biggest case of his legal career was a 1996 product liability lawsuit against Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover. The case involved Valerie Lakey, a five-year-old girl who was disemboweled by the suction power of the pool drain pump when she sat on an open pool drain whose protective cover other children at the pool had removed, after the swim club had failed to install the cover properly.
The jury awarded the family $25 million, the largest personal injury award in North Carolina history. The company settled for the $25 million while the jury was deliberating additional punitive damages, rather than risk losing an appeal."<
Info. from......
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=John+Edwards+plaintiffs&btnG=Search
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I, too, personally hate insurance companies. They are the problem with health care in America. I used to live in North Carolina and was there when Jonny Boy was practicing law and a Senator. I know he sued many, many doctors...mostly OB/GYN's. He and his kind are also the problem with health care in America.
Doctors are not paid by insurance companies if the order too many tests, and are sued by the trial lawyers if they don't. American doctors are a dying breed. Less and less want to even go to medical school. Many doctors are retiring early because things are just too awful right now and the money just isn't worth it anymore. They don't make anything close to what most people think they make. Who in their right mind would even WANT to go to medical school in this day and age.
Trust me....NOBODY in North Carolina likes John Edwards. When he was running for VP with Kerry...he couldn't even win his own state. They all hate him there.