Never been a big fan of John Edwards, but this indictment is weak. Go after the bank fraudsters!

[flpoljunkie]

[bigwillq]

1. Or go after BushCo. (nt)

[flpoljunkie]

2. Apparently, Time's Joe Klein agrees...

Crime 49 mins ago
A Note on Edwards

BY JOE KLEIN

I was never a big John Edwards fan. He seemed an “ice skater”–as Mario Cuomo used to say. He skimmed the surface, without ever really exploring or grasping the issues. It seemed that he became a politician because he thought he looked like a politician. But I think his indictment today is a big waste of time and money. If he did break the law, it was a one-time, unique situation, an act of stupidity ruled by panic and passion. His penalty for that act was to become a public joke, cad and a pariah. He will have to live the rest of his life knowing that every time he shakes someone’s hand there’s a high probability that person will be thinking: you slimy, disgusting jerk. There are other criminals out there whom the government should be pursuing. The bankers who caused the crash, for example. There, the shame of an indictment or three would be a very necessary warning against the blithe arrogance and greed that continues to the practitioners and endanger the rest of us.

http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/03/a-note-on-edwards/

[Armstead]

3. Nah, the bastard deserves it.

He doesn't deserve to be tossed in the clink for 30 years or anything, but there does have to be a message sent that such slimy behavior by politicians will not be tolerated .

Doesn't mean they shouldn't be going after the banksters too. But presumably we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[Phx_Dem]

4. I agree. He was guilty of being a cheating, insensitive, LYING, asshole, but

that's not a crime. The charges against him seem pretty weak and hard to prove.

[ClarkUSA]

5. So a similar case against Ensign should be thrown out, too?

Nonsense.

[dsc]

9. actually the Ensign case is completely different

First, the Ensign case involves sexual harassment if the woman involved is to be believed. Second, Ensign conspired with the husband of the woman he slept sexually harassed to break a law by having him get a lobbying job. In Edwards case what he is being charged with is having to big contributors give her money to live on. It should be noted that the only reason this might be illegal is that they are counting them as campaign contributions despite the fact that none of the money went to the campaign. To win this case they are going to have to prove that the money was solicited or at least known to have been solicited by Edwards and that the reason the donors gave the money was to keep Edward's campaign alive. A pretty big hurdle. Far different from using taxpayer money to pay off the husband of the person you sexually harassed.

[bemildred]

6. Edwards needs to kill more people, or destroy the economy, then he would be protected. nt

[ClarkUSA]

7. Bullshit. If there was verifiable evidence he knowingly did those things, he'd be indicted, too.

[bemildred]

11. Bullshit indeed. nt

[ClarkUSA]

12. Don't be so hard on yourself. Edwards and Ensign are birds of a feather.

Both will go down, deservedly so.

[Jakes Progress]

18. You see the crimes as similar.

You find adultery to be the same as harassment? That says a lot.

[Jakes Progress]

19. You really can't think of some who have done this and been ignored by the AG?

[Jakes Progress]

17. If he was just republican, our administration would demand he not be charged with anything.

[boppers]

8. Gambling on wall street is legal. Using political money for bribes is not.

That's kind of how law works, illegal actions are prosecuted, legal ones are not.

[former9thward]

10. This is a very weak indictment and probably political.

Normally this would be handled as a civil matter not a criminal matter. The FEC has the ability to issue fines which should have been done here. Edwards is the first to be charged under the facts of this case. I hope he doesn't do a plea.

[ClarkUSA]

16. Do you have access to any evidence that leads you to make that judgment?

I'd say it's pretty clear that a federal grand jury has seen much more evidence than anyone here. They voted to indict:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=grand+jury+indicts+Edwards&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Ensign is being investigated by the DoJ for similar reasons, only his case is a couple of years down the pike. Republicans are defending Ensign; they know he's guilty. Ditto with Democrats.

Just because Edwards was a Democratic darling at one time (just as Ensign was in his political prime), doesn't mean and shouldn't mean anything to the DoJ.

[former9thward]

20. I don't know the specific facts about Ensign.

So I don't know how similar they are. Edwards got some money from a couple of donors to hide his relationship. Government says it was campaign related, Edwards says no. No one else has been criminally prosecuted on those facts. Normally they would just get a FEC fine. The fact that a grand jury indicted him does not impress me. Grand juries indict 99% of the time whomever the prosecutor wants them to indict. Grand juries are not experts in the law and they only hear one side of the story.

[Hippo_Tron]

23. How often does a federal prosecutor fail to get an indictment from a grand jury?

Without having seen the evidence as to whether or not Edwards was aware that these people were paying Rielle Hunter to shield her from the media, and that will be a big question in the case, even if he was fully aware of it, proving that it was a violation of campaign finance law is a huge stretch. Normally these matters are handled by the FEC and a fine, not the justice department and potential jail time.

[geek tragedy]

13. Edwards's fault for being a dishonest sleazeball.

Really lame to whine about this.

[Scottybeamer70]

14. and how many people lied about the

war in Iraq? Have any of them been indicted? Not a single one!
This is purely political, and a distraction to what is really going
on in this country.

[nobodyspecial]

15. Not saying that the feds shouldn't pursue others

But Edwards deserves this. Just because he's our scumbag doesn't mean he's still not a scumbag. He will get his day in court. I just feel sorry for the kids now that their mom is gone.

[Lugnut]

21. Gee Dub and the Dick come to mind as well.

WTF?

[Vinca]

22. In the realm of white collar crimes, this one is small potatoes.

Agree with OP - go after the criminals on Wall Street and from the former Bush administration. Not that Edwards is a choir boy. He's #1 jerk on the planet, but his actions fall more into the "did a really dumb thing" category rather than "planned a really big heist" category.