Fred Baron

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A desperate politician willing to break federal laws to get elected president? Or a husband and father trying to protect himself and his family from humiliation from public disclosure of his extramarital affair? Those were the starkly different portraits of John Edwards presented during opening arguments Monday, the first day of the former presidential candidate's criminal trial on charges that he violated campaign finance laws. Edwards is accused of accepting more than $900,000 from benefactors to pay for expenses of his mistress and hide the affair from his family - revelations that could have derailed his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A former aide to John Edwards on Tuesday described the detailed plans he said the former presidential candidate devised to hide his extramarital affair and his mistress' pregnancy, including accepting money from a wealthy benefactor to pay for his paramour's expenses. Andrew Young, the prosecution's chief witness, testified throughout the second day of the criminal trial against Edwards, who is accused of six counts related to campaign finance violations. Young testified that he approached a number of Edwards supporters seeking money to pay the living and healthcare expenses for mistress Rielle Hunter, who gave birth to Edwards' daughter.

A North Carolina grand jury has indicted former Sen. John Edwards on criminal campaign finance violations in connection with a sex scandal. For the Record, 11:06 a.m. June 3: An earlier version of this article incorrectly gave John Edwards' age as 58. He is 57. Edwards, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 and a candidate for president in 2004 and 2008, was charged with four counts of illegal campaign contributions, one count...

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Opening statements are set for today in the trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards, as federal prosecutors try to prove that more than $900,000 paid to Edwards by two wealthy benefactors during his run for the White House should have been reported as campaign contributions because the money flowed to his mistress to preserve Edwards' image as a "family first" candidate. Edwards' defense team is expected to argue that the payments were gifts from wealthy friends and the money was used for expenses unrelated to the 2008 campaign.

Jurors in the federal criminal trial of John Edwards were clearly not given a primer on the intricacies of the campaign finance laws he is accused of violating. Instead, they listened to Andrew Young, the former presidential candidate's once-trusted aide, describe how Edwards called his mistress a "crazy slut," used a secret "Bat phone" to call her, and accepted money from rich friends to pay her expenses. Although Young's salacious testimony seemed to keep jurors awake, he may not have been as strong a lead witness as the prosecution had hoped.

Last week, jury selection began for John Edwards' trial in Greensboro, N.C. He's charged with accepting and concealing nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions during the 2008 Democratic presidential race. It's an extraordinary moment. Usually, allegations of campaign finance shenanigans are handled as civil matters by the bipartisan appointees on the Federal Election Commission. Unfortunately, the agency's most significant decisions have often loosened the bonds of campaign law. But Edwards has been charged in a federal criminal proceeding with "knowingly and willfully" breaking the law. That means a jury of regular folks, not Beltway partisans and lawyers beholden to the system, will determine his guilt or innocence.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - After weeks of riveting and often salacious testimony about an extramarital affair and the elaborate lies that once kept it hidden, testimony in the John Edwards trial turned Monday to a more prosaic topic: campaign finance law. As Edwards' legal team opened his defense, the finance director for his failed 2008 presidential run testified that more than $900,000 from two wealthy benefactors was not reported as campaign contributions...

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal jury in the political corruption trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards deliberated for a second day Monday without reaching a verdict, as Edwards quietly awaited his fate inside a federal courthouse. The jury of eight men and four women requested seven prosecution exhibits. Among them were emails in 2006 and 2007 that discussed $725,000 provided to Edwards by wealthy heiress and supporter Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, now 101, during Edwards' campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Both sides in the John Edwards trial gave detailed closing arguments Thursday to a federal jury that will decide whether the former presidential candidate knowingly violated campaign finance laws in a scheme to hide an extramarital affair. Prosecutors told jurors that testimony and evidence in the nearly four-week trial prove that Edwards solicited and orchestrated secret payments of $925,000 from two wealthy benefactors to save his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination from scandal.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The federal judge in the John Edwards trial closed her courtroom Friday afternoon to deal with what she called a "juror matter," and then sent the jury home for the Memorial Day weekend with no verdict reached. U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles did not disclose what she and lawyers for both sides discussed during the 35 minutes the courtroom was closed to reporters and spectators. Jurors will return for a seventh day of deliberations Tuesday morning.