John Edwards | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait,c. 1999–2003 | |
| United States Senator fromNorth Carolina | |
| In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Lauch Faircloth |
| Succeeded by | Richard Burr |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Johnny Reid Edwards (1953-06-10)June 10, 1953 (age 71) Seneca,South Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | [a] |
| Domestic partner | Rielle Hunter (2006–2015) |
| Children | 5, includingCate |
| Education | Clemson University North Carolina State University (BA) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (JD) |
| Signature |  |
Johnny Reid Edwards[1] (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who representedNorth Carolina in theUnited States Senate from 1999 to 2005. A member of theDemocratic Party, he was thevice presidential nominee under US SenatorJohn Kerry in the2004 presidential election. He also was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in2004 and2008.
Edwards defeated the incumbentRepublicanLauch Faircloth in North Carolina's1998 Senate election. Toward the end of his six-year term, he declined to seek re-election, and instead sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the2004 presidential election. Edwards suspended his campaign shortly after Super Tuesday, and later accepted theDemocratic vice presidential nomination.
Following Kerry's loss to incumbent PresidentGeorge W. Bush, Edwards began working full-time at the One America Committee, apolitical action committee he established in 2001, and was appointed director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillSchool of Law. He was also a consultant forFortress Investment Group LLC.
Afterhis 2008 presidential campaign, Edwards wasindicted by a federalgrand jury on June 3, 2011, on six felony charges of violating multiple federalcampaign contribution laws to cover upan extramarital affair to which he eventually admitted. He was found not guilty on one count, and the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five charges, as the jury was unable to come to an agreement.[2] The Justice Department dropped the remaining charges and did not attempt to retry Edwards.[3] Though he was not convicted of any crime, the revelation that he had engaged in an extramarital affair and fathered a child while his wife,Elizabeth Edwards, was dying of cancer, severely damaged his public image and effectively ended his political career.[4]
Since the death ofKay Hagan on October 28, 2019, Edwards is the only surviving former Democratic senator from North Carolina.
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Edwards was born on June 10, 1953, to Wallace Reid Edwards and Catharine Juanita "Bobbie" Edwards (née Wade) inSeneca, South Carolina. The family moved several times during Edwards's childhood, eventually settling inRobbins, North Carolina, where his father worked as atextile mill floor worker and was eventually promoted to supervisor. His mother had a roadside antique-finishing business and then worked as aletter carrier when his father left his job.[5] The family attended a Baptist church.[6]
A football star in high school,[7] Edwards was the first person in his family to attend college. He attendedClemson University for one semester before transferring toNorth Carolina State University. He graduated from NCSU with high honors with abachelor's degree in textile technology and a 3.8GPA in 1974, and later earned hisJuris Doctor from theUniversity of North Carolina School of Law (UNC) with honors.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2021) |
After law school, Edwardsclerked for federal judgeFranklin Dupree in North Carolina, and in 1978 became an associate at theNashville law firm of Dearborn & Ewing, doing primarily trial work, defending a Nashville bank and other corporate clients.[8][9]Lamar Alexander, a Republican and future governor of and U.S. Senator from Tennessee, was among Edwards's co-workers.[10] The Edwards family returned to North Carolina in 1981, settling in the capital ofRaleigh, where he joined the firm of Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove.[9][10]
In 1984, Edwards was assigned to amedical malpractice lawsuit that had been perceived to be unwinnable; the firm had accepted it only 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 an overdose of the anti-alcoholism drugAntabuse during alcohol aversion therapy.[11] In other cases, Edwards sued theAmerican 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.[9]
In 1985, Edwards represented a five-year-old child born with cerebral palsy – a child whose mother's doctor did not choose to perform an immediateCaesarean 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 on liability but overturned the damage 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."[9] 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.[9] Winning this case established the North Carolina precedent of physician and hospital liability for failing to determine whether the patient understood the risks of a particular procedure.[11]
After this trial, Edwards gained national attention as a plaintiff's lawyer. He filed at least twenty similar lawsuits in the years following, and achieved verdicts and settlements of more than $60 million for his clients. Similar lawsuits followed across the country. When asked about an increase in Caesarean deliveries nationwide, perhaps to avoid similar medical malpractice lawsuits, Edwards said, "The question is, would you rather have cases where that happens instead of having cases where you don't intervene and a child either becomes disabled for life or dies in utero?"[9]
In 1993, Edwards began his own firm in Raleigh (now named Kirby & Holt) with a friend, David Kirby. He became known as the top plaintiffs' attorney in North Carolina.[9] 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 girl who at five years old[12] sustainedpool suction-drain injury.[13] She was disemboweled by the suction power of the pool drain pump when she sat on an open pool drain whose protective cover had been removed by other children at the pool, after the swim club had failed to install the cover properly. Despite 12 prior suits with similar claims, Sta-Rite continued to make and sell drain covers lacking warnings. Sta-Rite protested that an additional warning would have made no difference because the pool owners already knew the importance of keeping the cover secured.
In his closing arguments, Edwards spoke to the jury for an hour and a half and made reference to his son, Wade, who had been killed shortly before testimony began.[clarification needed] Mark Dayton, editor ofNorth Carolina Lawyers Weekly, would later call it "the most impressive legal performance I have ever seen."[14] 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 additionalpunitive damages, rather than risk a further award. For their part in this case, Edwards and law partner David Kirby earned theAssociation of Trial Lawyers of America's national award for public service.[11] The family said that they hired Edwards over other attorneys because he alone had offered to accept a smaller percentage as his fee unless the award was unexpectedly high, while all of the other lawyers they spoke with said they required the full one-third fee. The size of the jury award was unprecedented, and Edwards did receive the standard one-third-plus-expenses fee typical of contingency cases. The family was so impressed with his intelligence and commitment[9] that they volunteered for his Senate campaign the next year.
After Edwards won a large verdict against a trucking company whose worker had been involved in a fatal accident, the North Carolina legislature passed a law prohibiting such awards unless the company had specifically sanctioned the employee's actions.[9]
In December 2003, during his first presidential campaign, Edwards (withJohn Auchard) publishedFour Trials, an autobiographical book focusing on cases from his legal career. According to this book, the success of the Sta-Rite case and his son's death (Edwards had hoped his son would eventually join him in private law practice) prompted Edwards to leave the legal profession and seek public office.
Edwards, his daughter Cate, and David Kirby started a new law firm in 2013, named Edwards Kirby, with offices in Raleigh and in Washington, D.C.[15][16]
| This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2023) |
Edwards promotes programs to eliminate poverty in the United States, including arguing in favor of creating one million housing vouchers over five years in order to place poor people in middle-class neighborhoods. Edwards has stated, "If we truly believe that we are all equal, then we should live together too."[17] He also supports "College for Everyone" initiatives.Although Edwards initially supported the Iraq War, he later changed his position and in November 2005 wrote anop-ed inThe Washington Post in which he said he expressed regret for voting for theIraq War Resolution and discussed three solutions for success in the conflict.[18] He denounced the "troop surge" in Iraq, was a proponent for withdrawal, and urged Congress to withhold funding for the war without a withdrawal timetable.[19]
On social policy, Edwards supports abortion rights and has auniversal healthcare plan that requires all Americans to purchase healthcare insurance,[20] "requires that everybody get preventive care", and requires employers to provide health care insurance or be taxed to fund public health care.[21][22] He supports a pathway to citizenship forillegal immigrants,[22] is opposed to aconstitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage;[23] and supports the repeal of theDefense of Marriage Act (DOMA).[24]
Edwards endorsed efforts to slow down global warming[25] and was the first presidential candidate to describe his campaign ascarbon-neutral.[26]
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Edwards won election to the U.S. Senate in 1998 as a Democrat running against incumbent Republican SenatorLauch Faircloth. Despite originally being the underdog, Edwards beat Faircloth by 51.2% to 47.0% — a margin of some 83,000 votes. He served alongside fellow Republican SenatorJesse Helms until Helms left office in 2003, having chosen to not seek reelection in 2002.[27]
DuringPresidentBill Clinton's1999 impeachment trial in the Senate, Edwards was responsible for thedeposition of witnessesMonica Lewinsky and fellow DemocratVernon Jordan, Jr. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Edwards was on Democratic nomineeAl Gore's vice presidential nominee short list (along withJohn Kerry andJoe Lieberman, Gore's eventual pick).[28]
In his time in the Senate, Edwards co-sponsored 203 bills.[29] Among them was Lieberman's 2002Iraq War Resolution (S.J.Res.46), which he co-sponsored along with 15 other senators, but which did not go to a vote.[30] He voted for replacement resolution (H.J Res. 114) in the full Senate to authorize the use of military force against Iraq, which passed by a vote of 77 to 23,[31] On October 10, 2002, he stated that:
"Almost no one disagrees with these basic facts: that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a menace; that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he is doing everything in his power to get nuclear weapons; that he has supported terrorists; that he is a grave threat to the region, to vital allies likeIsrael, and to the United States; and that he is thwarting the will of the international community and undermining the United Nations' credibility."[32]
On October 10, 2004, Edwards further defended his vote during an appearance onMeet the Press:
"I would have voted for the resolution knowing what I know today, because it was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confrontSaddam Hussein ... I think Saddam Hussein was a very serious threat. I stand by that, and that's why [John Kerry and I] stand behind our vote on the resolution."[33]
Edwards subsequently changed his mind about the war and apologized for that military authorization vote.[when?] Edwards also voted in favor of thePatriot Act.[citation needed]
Among other positions, Edwards was generallypro-choice and supportedaffirmative action and thedeath penalty. One of his first sponsored bills was theFragile X Research Breakthrough Act of 1999.[34] He was also the first person to introduce comprehensive anti-spyware legislation with theSpyware Control and Privacy Protection Act.[35] He advocated rolling back theBush administration's tax cuts and endingmandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent offenders.[36] Edwards generally supported expanding legal immigration to the United States while working withMexico to provide better border security and stop illegal trafficking.[36][37]
Edwards served on theU.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, theU.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary, and was a member of theNew Democrat Coalition.[citation needed]
Before the2004 Senate election, Edwards announced his retirement from the Senate and supportedErskine Bowles, formerWhite House Chief of Staff, as the successor to his seat; Bowles was defeated by RepublicanRichard Burr in the election.[citation needed]
The day after his concession speech, he announced his wife Elizabeth had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Edwards told interviewerLarry King that he doubted he would return to practice as a trial lawyer and showed no interest in succeedingTerry McAuliffe as theDemocratic National Committee chairman.
In February 2005, Edwards headlined the "100 Club" Dinner, a major fundraiser for theNew Hampshire Democratic Party. That same month, Edwards was appointed as director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for studying ways to move people out of poverty. That fall, Edwards toured ten major universities in order to promote "Opportunity Rocks!", a program aimed at getting youth involved to fight poverty.
On March 21, 2005, Edwards recorded his firstpodcast[38] withhis wife. Several months later, in August, Edwards delivered an address to a potential key supporter in the Iowa caucus, theAFL–CIO inWaterloo, Iowa.
In the following month, Edwards sent an email to his supporters and announced that he opposed the nomination of JudgeJohn G. Roberts to becomeChief Justice of the United States. He was also opposed to the nomination of JusticeSamuel Alito as an Associate Justice and Judge Charles Pickering's appointment to the Federal bench.
During the summer and fall of 2005, he visitedhomeless shelters and job training centers and spoke at events organized byACORN, theNAACP and theSEIU. He spoke in favor of an expansion of theearned income tax credit; in favor of a crackdown onpredatory lending; an increase in thecapital gains tax rate;housing vouchers forracial minorities (to integrate upper-income neighborhoods); and a program modeled on theWorks Progress Administration to rehabilitate theGulf Coast followingHurricane Katrina. InGreene County, North Carolina, he unveiled the pilot program for College for Everyone, an educational measure he promised during his presidential campaign, in which prospective college students would receive a scholarship for their first year in exchange for ten hours of work a week. The College for Everyone program was canceled in July 2008.[39]
Edwards was co-chair of aCouncil on Foreign Relations task force onUnited States-Russia relations alongside RepublicanJack Kemp, a former congressman, Cabinet official and vice presidential nominee.[40] The task force issued its report in March 2006.[41] On July 12, theInternational Herald Tribune published a relatedop-ed by Edwards and Kemp.[42]
In October 2005, Edwards joined theWall Street investment firmFortress Investment Group as a senior adviser and consultant, a position for which a close aide reported he received an annual salary of $500,000.[43][44] Fortress owned a major stake in Green Tree Servicing LLC, which rose to prominence in the 1990s selling subprime loans to mobile-home owners and now services subprime loans originated by others, but in an interview Edwards said he was unaware of this.[45] Subprime loans allow buyers with poor credit histories to be funded, but they charge higher rates because of the risk, and sometimes carry hidden fees and increased charges over time.[45] In August 2007,The Wall Street Journal reported that a portion of the Edwards family's assets were invested in Fortress Investment Group, which had, in turn, invested a portion of its assets in subprime mortgage lenders, some of which had foreclosed on the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims.[46][47] Upon learning of Fortress's investments, Edwards divested funds and stated that he would try to help the affected families.[48] Edwards later helped set up an ACORN-administered "Louisiana Home Rescue Fund" seeded with $100,000, much of it from his pocket, to provide loans and grants to the families who were foreclosed on by Fortress-owned lenders.[49]
As of 2014, Edwards was a personal injury lawyer inPitt County, North Carolina.[50] He was invited to and attended the2024 Democratic National Convention, which was the first DNC he attended since his Vice-Presidential nomination in Boston, twenty years earlier.[51]
North Carolina United States Senate election, 1998 (Democratic primary)[52]
North Carolina United States Senate election, 1998[53]
2004 Democratic presidential primaries[54]
2004 United States presidential election
2008 Democratic presidential primaries
In 2000, Edwards unofficially began his presidential campaign when he began to seek speaking engagements inIowa, the site of the nation'sfirst party caucuses. On January 2, 2003, Edwards beganfundraising without officially campaigning by forming an exploratory committee. On September 15, 2003, Edwards fulfilled a promise he made a year earlier as a guest onThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart to unofficially announce his intention to seek the2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The next morning, Edwards made the announcement officially from his hometown. He declined to run for reelection to the Senate in order to focus on his presidential run. Edwards's campaign was chaired by North Carolina Democratic activistEd Turlington.
As Edwards had been building support essentially since his election to the Senate, he led the initial campaign fundraising, amassing over $7 million during the first quarter of 2003 – more than half of which came from individuals associated with the legal profession, particularly Edwards's fellow trial lawyers, their families, and employees.[56] Edwards'sstump speech spoke of "Two Americas", with one composed of the wealthy and privileged, and the other of the hard-working common man, causing the media to often characterize Edwards as apopulist.[57][58]
Edwards struggled to gain substantial support, but his poll numbers began to rise steadily weeks before the Iowa caucuses. In these he had a surprising second-place finish with the support of 32% of delegates, behind onlyJohn Kerry's 39% and ahead of former front-runnerHoward Dean at 18%. One week later in theNew Hampshire primary, Edwards finished in fourth place behind Kerry, Dean andWesley Clark, with 12%. During the February 3 primaries, Edwards won the South Carolina primary,[59] lost to Clark inOklahoma, and lost to Kerry in the other states. Edwards garnered the second-largest number of second-place finishes, again falling behind Clark.[60]
Dean withdrew from the contest, leaving Edwards the only major challenger to Kerry. In theWisconsin primary on February 17, Edwards finished second to Kerry with 34% of the vote. He largely avoided attacking Kerry until a February 29, 2004, debate in New York, in which he characterized him as a "Washington insider" and mocked Kerry's plan to form a committee to examinetrade agreements.
In theSuper Tuesday primaries on March 2, Kerry finished well ahead in nine of the ten states voting, and Edwards's campaign ended. InGeorgia, Edwards finished only slightly behind Kerry but, failing to win a single state, chose to withdraw from the race. He announced his official withdrawal at a press conference inRaleigh, North Carolina, on March 3. Edwards's withdrawal made major media outlets relatively early on the evening of Super Tuesday, at about 6:30 pm CST, before polls had closed in California and before caucuses inMinnesota had even begun. It is thought that the withdrawal influenced many people in Minnesota to vote for other candidates, which may partially account for the strong Minnesota finish ofDennis Kucinich.[original research?] Edwards did win the presidentialstraw poll conducted by theIndependence Party of Minnesota.
After withdrawing from the race, he went on to win the April 17 Democratic caucuses in his home state of North Carolina,[61] making him the only Democratic candidate besides Kerry to win nominating contests in two states in 2004.
On July 6, 2004, Kerry announced that Edwards would be his running mate; the decision was widely hailed in public opinion polls and by Democratic leaders. Though many Democrats supported Edwards's nomination, others criticized the selection for Edwards's perceived lack of experience. In the vice presidential debate,Dick Cheney told Edwards they had never met because of Edwards's frequent absences from the Senate, but that was later proven to be incorrect. Videotape later surfaced of Cheney and Edwards shaking hands off-camera during a taping ofMeet the Press on April 8, 2001.[62] On February 1, 2001, Cheney thanked Edwards by name and sat with him during a Senate prayer breakfast. George W. Bush's campaign spokesmanSteve Schmidt described the event as an "inconsequential meeting".[63][64] On January 8, 2003, they met when John Edwards accompanied then-SenatorElizabeth Dole to her swearing-in while Cheney wasPresident of the Senate.[65]
Kerry's campaign advisorBob Shrum later reported inTime magazine that Kerry said he wished he had never picked Edwards, and the two have since stopped speaking to each other.[66] Edwards said in his concession speech, "You can be disappointed, but you cannot walk away. This fight has just begun."[67]
On December 28, 2006, John Edwards officially announced his candidacy for President in the 2008 election from the yard of a home inNew Orleans, Louisiana, that was being rebuilt afterHurricane Katrina destroyed it.[68][69] Edwards stated that his main goals were eliminating poverty, fightingglobal warming, providinguniversal health care, and withdrawing troops from Iraq.[70]
National polls had Edwards placing third among the Democratic field beginning in January 2007, behind SenatorHillary Clinton and SenatorBarack Obama.[71] By July 2007, the Edwards campaign had raised $23 million from nearly 100,000 donors, placing him behind Obama and Clinton in fundraising.[72]
Edwards was first to boycott aFox News-sponsored presidential debate in March 2007.[73] Hillary Clinton,Bill Richardson, and Barack Obama followed suit.
On January 3, 2008, in theIowa caucuses, the first contest of the nomination process, Edwards placed second with 29.75% of the vote to Obama (37.58%), with Clinton coming in third with 29.47% of the vote.[74] On January 8, Edwards placed a distant third in theNew Hampshire Democratic primary with just under 17% (48,818 votes). On January 26, Edwards again placed third in theprimary in South Carolina – his birth state – which he had carried in 2004, and he placed third in the non-binding January 29 vote in Florida.
On January 30, 2008, following his primary and caucus losses, Edwards announced that he was suspending his campaign for the presidency.[75][76][77] He did not initially endorse either Clinton or Obama, saying they both had pledged to carry forward his central campaign theme of ending poverty in America.[78] In April 2008, he stated that he would not accept the 2008 vice presidential slot if asked.[79] On May 14, 2008, Edwards officially endorsed Senator Obama at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[80]
On June 15, 2008, Edwards stepped back from his initial outright denial of interest in the position of Vice President, saying, "I'd take anything he asks me to think about seriously, but obviously this is something that I've done and it's not a job I'm seeking."[81] On June 20, 2008, theAssociated Press reported that according to a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the names of Edwards andSam Nunn were on Obama's vice presidential shortlist.[82] Ultimately, then-SenatorJoe Biden of Delaware was tapped to become Obama's running mate.
While at UNC, he metElizabeth Anania. They married in 1977 and had four children (Wade in 1979,Cate in 1982, Emma Claire in 1998, and Jack in 2000). In awidely-publicized extramarital affair, he fathered a daughter in 2008 with Rielle Hunter, a staffer on his2008 presidential campaign. Edwards denied being the father until 2010.[83]
Wade was killed in a car accident when strong winds swept his Jeep off a North Carolina highway in 1996. Three weeks before his death, he was honored byFirst LadyHillary Clinton atThe White House as one of the 10 finalists in an essay contest sponsored by theNational Endowment for the Humanities and theVoice of America for an essay he wrote on entering the voting booth with his father.[84] Wade, accompanied by his parents and sister, went on to meet North Carolina Sen.Jesse Helms, who later entered Wade's essay and his obituary into theCongressional Record.[85] Edwards and his wife began the Wade Edwards Foundation in their son's memory; the purpose of the non-profit organization is "to reward, encourage, and inspire young people in the pursuit of excellence." The foundation funded the Wade Edwards Learning Lab at Wade's high school,Needham B. Broughton High School inRaleigh, along with scholarship competitions and essay awards.[86]
On November 3, 2004, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated bychemotherapy andradiotherapy,[87] and continued to work within the Democratic Party and her husband's One America Committee. On March 22, 2007, during his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination for the presidency, Edwards and his wife announced that her cancer had returned; she was diagnosed withstage IV breast cancer, with newly discoveredmetastases to the bone and possibly to her lung.[88][89] They said that the cancer was "no longer curable, but is completely treatable"[90] and that they planned to continue campaigning together with an occasional break when she required treatment.[88][91]
In June 2010, Elizabeth published a book calledResilience. Her book is about the struggles of her marriage and how she was affected byher husband's affair. In the book, Elizabeth talks about how long she was in the dark about the affair and how many times her husband lied about the details of the affair. She never addresses John's mistress by name but calls her a "parasitic groupie" and claims that she is "pathetic". Elizabeth also opens up about how she tried to forgive her husband after she first learned of the affair but struggled to find forgiveness when he continued to lie. After Edwards's January 21, 2010, admission that he fathered a child with hismistress, Elizabeth obtained alegal separation from him and intended to file for divorce after a mandatory one-year waiting period.[92][93][94]
On December 7, 2010, Elizabeth died ofmetastatic breast cancer, aged 61.[95]
In Washington, D.C., Edwards lived onEmbassy Row, at 2215 30th Street NW.[96] In 2004, he sold his house to theHungarian Embassy to the United States.[97][98]
In October 2007,The National Enquirer began a series of reports alleging anadulterous affair between Edwards and former campaign worker Rielle Hunter. By July 2008, several news media outlets speculated that Edwards's chances for the vice presidency as well as other positions such as the attorney general were harmed by the allegations, which now included that he fathered a child with Hunter and had visited her and the baby girl at the Beverly Hilton Hotel inBeverly Hills, California. The story was not widely covered by the press for some time, until, after initially denying the allegations,[99][100][101][102] Edwards admitted the affair.[103][104]
In an August 8, 2008, statement,[105] and an interview withBob Woodruff ofABC News, Edwards admitted the affair with Hunter in 2006, but denied being the father of her child. He acknowledged that he had been dishonest in denying the entireEnquirer story, admitting that some of it was true, but said that the affair ended long before the time of the child's conception. He further said he was willing to take a paternity test, but Hunter responded that she would not be party to aDNA test "now or in the future".[106] Initially, campaign aide Andrew Young claimed that he, not Edwards, was the child's father.[107] Young later renounced that statement, instead alleging that Edwards always knew he was the child's father and had pleaded with him to falsely accept responsibility.[108]
Young further claimed to have set up private meetings between Edwards and Hunter, and that Edwards once calmed an anxious Hunter by promising her that after his wife died he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by theDave Matthews Band.[108] Young also maintains that Edwards asked him to "Get a doctor to fake the DNA results ... and to steal a diaper from the baby so he could secretly do a DNA test to find out if this [was] indeed his child."[109]
On January 21, 2010, John Edwards issued a press release to admit that he fathered Hunter's child.[110] On February 2, 2010, Young released a book detailing the affair. Young also began working withAaron Sorkin on a movie about the affair based on the bookThe Politician. On February 23, 2012, an Orange County, North Carolina, judge ruled that Young and his wife could not publicize the movie. The judge also ruled that an alleged "sex tape" of Edwards and Hunter be destroyed by the court. The judge also allowed only the materials already in the public domain to be used for public purposes. All other photos and materials not yet released can be used for family purposes only.[111]
Reports surfaced in late 2011 inThe National Enquirer andRadarOnline.com that Edwards asked his former mistress to move into his North Carolina home, where he had once lived with his wife.[112] In 2012, Rielle Hunter announced her breakup with Edwards the same day she released a book about their relationship.[113]
In response to the scandal involving Edwards's extramarital affair and attempts to cover it up, he has stated "I am a sinner, but not a criminal."[114]
In May 2009, newspapers reported that Edwards's campaign was being investigated for conversion of campaign money to personal use related to the affair. Edwards said that the campaign was complying with the inquiry. The relevant US attorney refused to comment.[115][116] In the same month,George Stephanopoulos of ABC News reported that members of Edwards's staff had told him that they had planned a "doomsday strategy" to derail Edwards's campaign if he got close to the nomination.[117]Joe Trippi, a senior advisor to the campaign, said the report was "complete bullshit".[118] In August 2009, Rielle Hunter appeared before thegrand jury investigating this matter.[119] On March 15, 2010, Hunter broke her silence during an interview withGQ magazine and provided new details about the affair.[120][121] In March 2011, voicemail messages allegedly left by John Edwards were obtained, which Young says prove that Edwards arranged the cover-up of his affair with Hunter.[122]
On May 24, 2011,ABC News and theNew York Times reported that theU.S Department of Justice'sPublic Integrity Section had conducted a two-year investigation into whether Edwards had used more than $1 million in political donations to hide his affair and planned to pursue criminal charges for alleged violations ofcampaign finance laws.[123][124][125]
On June 3, 2011, Edwards was indicted by afederal grand jury in North Carolina on six felony charges, including four counts of collecting illegal campaign contributions, one count of conspiracy, and one count of making false statements.[126]
After postponing the start of the trial while Edwards was treated for a heart condition in February 2012, JudgeCatherine Eagles of theU.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina scheduled jury selection to begin on April 12, 2012.[127] Edwards's trial began on April 23, 2012, as he faced up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine.[128]
In a related development, on March 13, 2012, theFederal Election Commission ruled that Edwards's campaign must repay $2.1 million in matching federal funds. Edwards's lawyers claimed the money was used, and that the campaign did not receive all the funds to which it was entitled, but the Commission rejected the arguments.[129]
Twelve jurors and four alternates were seated, and opening arguments began April 23, 2012.[130] Closing arguments took place May 17, and the case went to the jury the next day.[131]
On May 31, 2012, Edwards was found not guilty on Count 3, illegal use of campaign funding (contributions fromRachel "Bunny" Mellon), while mistrials were declared on all other counts against him.[2] On June 13, 2012, the Justice Department announced that it dropped the charges and would not attempt to retry Edwards.[3]
After his political career ended, Edwards, along with attorneys David Kirby and William Bystrynski, founded the law firm Edwards Kirby in Raleigh, specializing in medical malpractice cases.[50] In 2015, his daughter Cate was the managing attorney of the San Diego office of the firm.[132]
... one of three lawyers representing the parents of a 4-year-old Virginia boy who was 3 months old in 2009.
No, you did not read a typo. Not only did a Minnesota elector vote for Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards for both President and Vice President, but he or she could not spell his ordinary last name correctly.
At a New Orleans event Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards announced that he is suspending his campaign
His once-prominent political career is buried and the turmoil of his marriage is playing out in public.
John Edwards marched toward the White House in 2006 seeking an arsenal of millions collected a little at a time.
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| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromNorth Carolina (Class 3) 1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democraticnominee forVice President of the United States 2004 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from North Carolina 1999–2005 Served alongside:Jesse Helms,Elizabeth Dole | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded byas Former US Senator | Order of precedence of the United States | Succeeded byas Former US Senator |
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