A federal grand jury in North Carolina today indicted former U.S. senator and presidential candidate John Edwards on six counts alleging he violated campaign finance laws in 2007 and 2008. Today, appearing before a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, Edwards pleaded not guilty to the charges. There’s a huge Texas connection to the news – Fred Baron (pictured), a prominent Democrat and plaintiffs personal-injury lawyer in Dallas who died in October 2008, was Edwards’ finance chairman for the 2008 election. The indictment in United States v. Johnny Reid Edwards alleges Edwards conspired with others to accept campaign contributions in excess of those allowed by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. He faces one count of conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions, and one count of false statements. The indictment alleges the purpose of the conspiracy was to advance Edwards’ campaign for president by “secretly obtaining and using hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions” from “a political supporter of Edwards beginning in or about 2004” and from the Edwards “campaign’s Finance Chair during the 2008 presidential campaign cycle” – Baron -- to conceal Edwards’ extramarital affair with an individual identified as “Person B” in the indictment. Edwards has acknowledged an affair with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, and admitted he is the father of her baby. “Edwards knew that public revelation of the affair and pregnancy would destroy his candidacy by, among other things, undermining Edwards’ presentation of himself as a family man and by forcing his campaign to divert personnel and resources away from other campaign activities to respond to criticism and media scrutiny regarding the affair and pregnancy,” the government alleges in the indictment. As alleged, around December 2007, Baron -- who is identified only as “Person D” in the indictment -- did assist Hunter, but he didn’t inform Edwards. “I never discussed it with John. He was on the campaign trail in Iowa at the time,” Baron said in an Aug. 12, 2008, interview with Texas Lawyer. Asked for comment, Baron’s wife, Dallas lawyer Lisa Blue-Baron, sent an e-mail today that says: “I know my late husband Fred Baron cared about the senator. John has been a long time friend of our family. I have confidence in the legal system. At this point in time Senator Edwards is innocent until proven guilty.” An attorney for Edwards, Gregory Craig, a partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C, said in a written statement that John Edwards "did not break the law and will mount a vigorous defense.” Craig said in a separate statement, “No one has ever been charged, either civilly or criminally, with the claims that have been brought against Sen. Edwards today. This is an unprecedented prosecution . . . no one would have known, or should have known, or could have been expected to know, that these payments would be treated or should be considered as campaign contributions. And there was no way Senator Edwards knew that fact either.” Edwards said in a statement, “There’s no question that I’ve done wrong. I take full responsibility for having done wrong. I will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that I’ve caused to others. But I did not break the law. And I never, ever thought that I was breaking the law.” Edwards appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Auld of the Middle District of North Carolina. In a written statement today, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer wrote, “Mr. Edwards is alleged to have accepted more than $900,000 in an effort to conceal from the public facts that he believed would harm his candidacy. As this indictment shows, 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 laws.”
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
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