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Prosecution Rests After Presenting Video of Democrat Edwards's Lies About His Affair
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Leroy N. Soetoro
May 14, 2012, 1:50:05 PM5/14/12
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/us/prosecution-shows-video-of-john-
edwards-lying-about-affair.html
By KIM SEVERSON
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Prosecutors rested their case against former Senator
John Edwards on Thursday, offering as their last piece of evidence a
national television interview he did in 2008 in which he denied much about
the affair that ultimately brought him to the federal courtroom here.
Watching Mr. Edwards watch himself lie was the most electric moment yet in
a three-week trial that has been relatively light on federal campaign law
and heavy on dramatic narrative.
Mr. Edwards, 58, faces six counts of conspiracy and violating campaign
laws. The Department of Justice contends he illegally used at least
$925,000 in money from two wealthy donors to hide his mistress and their
child as he pursued the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
The actual amount spent keeping the affair from his family and the public
is well over a million dollars, but the government is focusing only on
money spent until he suspended his campaign at the end of January 2008.
The affair had begun a couple of years earlier, but remained largely a
rumor. The National Enquirer ran an article in October 2007 about the
affair that was ignored by other news media. But when it published a
photograph of Mr. Edwards holding his baby in a Beverly Hills hotel, the
story took on a new life.
Instead of admitting it, Mr. Edwards allowed an aide to claim paternity.
The aide, Andrew Young, then took his own family and Mr. Edwards’s
pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, on the run, eventually ending up renting
a mansion for about $20,000 a month in Santa Barbara, Calif. The baby,
Frances Quinn Hunter, was born in February 2008, a month after Mr. Edwards
suspended his run for the presidency. As the race between Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Barack Obama progressed, Mr. Edwards still held out hope for a
position as attorney general or eventually as a Supreme Court justice.
By that August, with the Democratic National Convention weeks away, he
thought he could make the story go away by confessing to a brief affair
but deny that the baby, at that point 6 months old, was his.
So he asked Jennifer Palmieri, his former press secretary and a close
friend of his wife, Elizabeth, to help arrange an interview on the ABC
News program “Nightline” with the reporter Bob Woodruff, who has attended
the trial nearly every day.
Mr. Edwards was going to use a “thread the needle” strategy, said Ms.
Palmieri, who is now a deputy director of communications for the White
House.
That is, he would confess to a brief affair and claim that it was over and
that he and his wife had reconciled. He would deny both that the baby was
his and that he arranged to pay to support Ms. Hunter.
Ms. Palmieri advised him against it. She had come to believe the baby was
his.
“I told him I didn’t think he should do an interview if he was going to
lie,” she told the court. “He didn’t need any more press attention at this
point.”
She knew his political career was essentially over, she testified
Wednesday.“He was deluded for thinking otherwise,” she said.
Still, he went ahead with the interview. It played for nearly 20 minutes
on screens around the courtroom, including one on the defense table
directly in front of him.
Mr. Edwards watched a younger, happier-looking version of himself sitting
forward in a chair in his Chapel Hill home, taking question after
question.
Was the affair over? “Oh, yes. It’s been over for a long time.” Is that
your baby? “That is absolutely not true.”
Two weeks earlier, he had been photographed at the Beverly Hills Hilton
holding Quinn. But in the interview, he claimed no knowledge of who the
baby was or where the photo had come from.
The short affair happened when his wife’s cancer was in remission, he
said, and was the result of narcissism and the conflicts that come from
rising so high after growing up as a small-town boy with humble roots.
Mr. Edwards, whose wife died in 2010, watched himself assert repeatedly
that he never spent money supporting his former mistress and her child.
“If the allegation is that somehow I participated in the payment of money,
that is a lie,” he said. He said he would take a paternity test if asked.
“One of the purposes of this interview, Bob, is to tell the truth,” he
said.
As the video ran, Mr. Edwards’s reaction was muted. He closed his eyes now
and again, and sometimes touched his fingertips to his lips. When it was
over and court was adjourned, his lawyer clapped him on the shoulder. Mr.
Edwards laughed.
He and his defense team appear confident that he will not be convicted,
and that he will escape up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in
fines.
At the close of court on Wednesday, with the prosecution nearing the end
of its case, Mr. Edwards turned to the head of his defense team, Abbe
Lowell, and said, “This is their case?”
On Friday, his lawyers will ask Judge Catherine C. Eagles to dismiss the
charges, claiming the government has not presented a strong enough case
against him to go to the jury.
If she denies their motion, Mr. Edwards’s defense will begin Monday.
Whether Mr. Edwards will testify in his own defense remains unclear.
--
Obama's black racist USAG appointee.
Eric Holder, racist black United States Attorney General drops voter
intimidation charges against the Black Panthers, "You are about to be
ruled by the black man, cracker!"
Eric Holder, prejudiced black United States Attorney General settles the
hate crime debate, "Whites Not Protected by Hate Crime Laws."
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to
former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New
York's million dollar tax evasion.
Barack Obama and Eric Holder, committed treason by knowingly and
deliberately arming enemies of the United States of America through
Operation Fast and Furious. Complicit in the murder of Federal employees
during the execution of their duties.
--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ne...@netfront.net ---
edwards-lying-about-affair.html
By KIM SEVERSON
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Prosecutors rested their case against former Senator
John Edwards on Thursday, offering as their last piece of evidence a
national television interview he did in 2008 in which he denied much about
the affair that ultimately brought him to the federal courtroom here.
Watching Mr. Edwards watch himself lie was the most electric moment yet in
a three-week trial that has been relatively light on federal campaign law
and heavy on dramatic narrative.
Mr. Edwards, 58, faces six counts of conspiracy and violating campaign
laws. The Department of Justice contends he illegally used at least
$925,000 in money from two wealthy donors to hide his mistress and their
child as he pursued the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
The actual amount spent keeping the affair from his family and the public
is well over a million dollars, but the government is focusing only on
money spent until he suspended his campaign at the end of January 2008.
The affair had begun a couple of years earlier, but remained largely a
rumor. The National Enquirer ran an article in October 2007 about the
affair that was ignored by other news media. But when it published a
photograph of Mr. Edwards holding his baby in a Beverly Hills hotel, the
story took on a new life.
Instead of admitting it, Mr. Edwards allowed an aide to claim paternity.
The aide, Andrew Young, then took his own family and Mr. Edwards’s
pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, on the run, eventually ending up renting
a mansion for about $20,000 a month in Santa Barbara, Calif. The baby,
Frances Quinn Hunter, was born in February 2008, a month after Mr. Edwards
suspended his run for the presidency. As the race between Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Barack Obama progressed, Mr. Edwards still held out hope for a
position as attorney general or eventually as a Supreme Court justice.
By that August, with the Democratic National Convention weeks away, he
thought he could make the story go away by confessing to a brief affair
but deny that the baby, at that point 6 months old, was his.
So he asked Jennifer Palmieri, his former press secretary and a close
friend of his wife, Elizabeth, to help arrange an interview on the ABC
News program “Nightline” with the reporter Bob Woodruff, who has attended
the trial nearly every day.
Mr. Edwards was going to use a “thread the needle” strategy, said Ms.
Palmieri, who is now a deputy director of communications for the White
House.
That is, he would confess to a brief affair and claim that it was over and
that he and his wife had reconciled. He would deny both that the baby was
his and that he arranged to pay to support Ms. Hunter.
Ms. Palmieri advised him against it. She had come to believe the baby was
his.
“I told him I didn’t think he should do an interview if he was going to
lie,” she told the court. “He didn’t need any more press attention at this
point.”
She knew his political career was essentially over, she testified
Wednesday.“He was deluded for thinking otherwise,” she said.
Still, he went ahead with the interview. It played for nearly 20 minutes
on screens around the courtroom, including one on the defense table
directly in front of him.
Mr. Edwards watched a younger, happier-looking version of himself sitting
forward in a chair in his Chapel Hill home, taking question after
question.
Was the affair over? “Oh, yes. It’s been over for a long time.” Is that
your baby? “That is absolutely not true.”
Two weeks earlier, he had been photographed at the Beverly Hills Hilton
holding Quinn. But in the interview, he claimed no knowledge of who the
baby was or where the photo had come from.
The short affair happened when his wife’s cancer was in remission, he
said, and was the result of narcissism and the conflicts that come from
rising so high after growing up as a small-town boy with humble roots.
Mr. Edwards, whose wife died in 2010, watched himself assert repeatedly
that he never spent money supporting his former mistress and her child.
“If the allegation is that somehow I participated in the payment of money,
that is a lie,” he said. He said he would take a paternity test if asked.
“One of the purposes of this interview, Bob, is to tell the truth,” he
said.
As the video ran, Mr. Edwards’s reaction was muted. He closed his eyes now
and again, and sometimes touched his fingertips to his lips. When it was
over and court was adjourned, his lawyer clapped him on the shoulder. Mr.
Edwards laughed.
He and his defense team appear confident that he will not be convicted,
and that he will escape up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in
fines.
At the close of court on Wednesday, with the prosecution nearing the end
of its case, Mr. Edwards turned to the head of his defense team, Abbe
Lowell, and said, “This is their case?”
On Friday, his lawyers will ask Judge Catherine C. Eagles to dismiss the
charges, claiming the government has not presented a strong enough case
against him to go to the jury.
If she denies their motion, Mr. Edwards’s defense will begin Monday.
Whether Mr. Edwards will testify in his own defense remains unclear.
--
Obama's black racist USAG appointee.
Eric Holder, racist black United States Attorney General drops voter
intimidation charges against the Black Panthers, "You are about to be
ruled by the black man, cracker!"
Eric Holder, prejudiced black United States Attorney General settles the
hate crime debate, "Whites Not Protected by Hate Crime Laws."
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to
former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New
York's million dollar tax evasion.
Barack Obama and Eric Holder, committed treason by knowingly and
deliberately arming enemies of the United States of America through
Operation Fast and Furious. Complicit in the murder of Federal employees
during the execution of their duties.
--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ne...@netfront.net ---
abelincoln
May 14, 2012, 11:12:03 PM5/14/12
to
In article <XnsA0536E36CB...@202.177.16.121>
Throw this no good asshole in jail and melt down the key.
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