![]() For decades, Cliven claimed that the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had no authority to restrict his use of public lands by his property. The judge told those jurors on Thursday that they could return to their homes and not attend remaining sessions of the trial.ĪBC News' Jason Ryan contributed to this report.The Bundy family’s public fight with the government began in 2014 when the patriarch Cliven, now 70, led an armed standoff with hundreds of supporters against law enforcement officials at his desert ranch in Nevada, over his refusal to pay grazing taxes. The jurors themselves captured headlines in recent days when four alternate jurors began wearing color-coordinated outfits. The panel of eight men and four women spent nine days and more than 50 hours deliberating, breaking only for lunch or when the judge ordered closed-door sessions to discuss issues with them. Any lies Edwards told, his lawyers said, were in an effort to keep the affair a secret from his wife, Elizabeth, who was dying of cancer, and not to advance his political career. In just three days of defense testimony, Edwards' lawyers tried to portray Young as the mastermind of a plot to use Edwards' scandal to request funds for his own personal use. ![]() Neither Hunter not Edwards himself ever took the stand. None of the principal witnesses in the case were ever called to testify. The government said Baron, another wealthy backer who was once Edwards' campaign treasurer, contributed an additional $300,000 to move Hunter and her baby all over the country to keep them away from the media. The prosecution detailed the way Edwards met Hunter and how he worked throughout his campaign to keep the affair and, later, his love child a secret. Much of it hinged on the testimony of Andrew Young, once Edwards' most loyal aide, who testified he collected $725,000 from Mellon, who disguised her contributions as payments for antique furniture. The government spent three weeks building its case. The jury began deliberating on May 18 after a month of testimony, which at times sounded more like a steamy soap opera than a trial on the intricacies of campaign finance rules. He said he took care of his two other children, Emma, 14, and Jack, 12, seeing them off to school every day.īut when it came to acknowledging Quinn, he got choked up. He acknowledged his moral shortcomings and thanked his children, dramatically pausing when mentioning 4-year-old Frances Quinn, the child he fathered with his mistress, Rielle Hunter.Įdwards was joined every day in the courtroom by his oldest daughter, Cate, 30. That count pertained only to whether Edwards illegally received several hundred thousand dollars in donations from wealthy heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon to cover up the affair in 2008.įollowing the verdict, Edwards, who remained silent throughout the trial, gave an emotional speech on the courthouse steps. John Edwards not guilty today on one of six counts in a campaign-finance trial, and declared itself hopelessly deadlocked on the remaining charges, leading the judge to declare a mistrial on those counts.Įdwards, a two-time presidential candidate, accused of soliciting nearly $1 million from wealthy backers to finance a cover up of his illicit affair and illegitimate child during his 2008 bid for the White House, was found not guilty on count 3 of the six-part indictment. GREENSBORO, N.C., May 31, 2012— - A North Carolina jury found former Sen.
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