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By TOM BREEN and NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press


      WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Former presidential hopeful John
Edwards pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges that he
solicited and secretly spent more than $925,000 to hide his
mistress and their baby from the public at the height of his 2008
White House campaign.


      In a 30-second statement to dozens of reporters and television
news cameras that surrounded him outside the courthouse, he said he
never thought he was breaking the law.


      "There is no question that I have done wrong," he said. "And
I take full responsibility for having done wrong. And I will regret
for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that I have caused to
others. But I did not break the law."
      

Edwards did not have to post bond, but he had to surrender his
passport and is not allowed to leave the continental U.S. He also
can't have contact with one of the wealthy benefactors who gave him
money that prosecutors say was used to hide the affair.
      


The indictment contained six felony counts, including
conspiracy, four counts of receiving illegal campaign contributions
and one count of false statements for keeping the spending off the
campaign's public finance reports.
    


  It said the payments made with money from two wealthy supporters
were a scheme to protect Edwards' presidential ambitions.


      "A centerpiece of Edwards' candidacy was his public image as a
devoted family man," the indictment said. "Edwards knew that
public revelation of the affair and the pregnancy would destroy his
candidacy."

      Prosecutors said the spending was illegal because the 2004
Democratic vice presidential nominee should have reported it on
public campaign finance filings and because it exceeded the $2,300
limit per person for campaign contributions.
     


 Edwards' lawyer, Gregory Craig, said there's no way that anyone,
including Edwards, would have known that the payments should be
treated as campaign contributions.
    

  "This is an unprecedented prosecution," he said at the
courthouse. "He has broken no law and we will defend this case
vigorously."

      The case opens a new front in how the federal government
oversees the flow of money around political campaigns.


      Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private
watchdog group often critical of the Justice Department for failing
to pursue wrongdoing by government officials, was a surprising
critic of this prosecution. Executive director Melanie Sloan said
the case was "remarkably weak."
     

 While Sloan called Edwards' conduct despicable, she said the
government case rests on finding the payments by Edwards' two
wealthy old friends to be campaign contributions "but no court has
ever interpreted the definition of campaign contribution this
broadly."
     


 Edwards' defense team issued statements from experts who argued
the payments were not campaign contributions. A former Federal
Elections Commission chairman, Scott Thomas, said if the agency had
investigated, it would have found the payments did not violate the
law, even as a civil matter.
    


  "A criminal prosecution of a candidate on these facts would be
outside anything I would expect after decades of experience with
the campaign finance laws," Thomas said.
     


 In recent days, Edwards' team also argued that the secret
spending was designed to hide the affair from his wife, Elizabeth,
who died of cancer in December, and not to aid his campaign.
      


Negotiations between Edwards' lawyers and prosecutors to settle
on a charge to which Edwards was willing to plead guilty continued
through Thursday, but proved fruitless, according to people with
knowledge of the negotiations. Prosecutors had insisted on a plea
to a felony, which would endanger his ability to keep his law
license.
    


  If convicted, Edwards faces a maximum penalty of five years in
prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the six counts. First-time
white collar offenders usually don't receive prison terms in
federal court, but the Justice Department typically presses for at
least short prison sentences for public officials.


 While Edwards
was a private citizen as a candidate, he was receiving taxpayer
money for his presidential campaign.
     


 The indictment was the culmination of a federal investigation
begun by the FBI more than two years ago that scoured virtually
every corner of Edwards' political career, including his time as a
U.S. senator, which ended seven years ago.
      


But the centerpiece has been the hundreds of thousands of
dollars privately provided by two wealthy supporters — former
campaign finance chairman Fred Baron and Rachel "Bunny" Mellon,
the 100-year-old widow of banking heir Paul Mellon. That money
eventually went to keep mistress Rielle Hunter and her
out-of-wedlock baby in hiding in 2007 and 2008, during the apex of
the Democratic nomination campaign.
    


  The indictment cited $725,000 in payments made by Mellon and
another $200,000 made by Baron. It said the money was used to pay
for Hunter's living and medical expenses and for chartered airfare,
luxury hotels and nearly $60,000 in rent for a house in Santa
Barbara, Calif., to keep her hidden from the public. Other than
Edwards, no one was named in the indictment, but the descriptions
of others make clear who they are.
     


 Mellon sent her money through her decorator. The indictment said
she listed items of furniture in the memo lines of checks - written
in amounts of $10,000-$200,000 for "chairs," "antique Charleston
table," and "book case" — to hide the true purpose. It said
Baron gave an envelope with about $1,000 cash and a note that said,
"Old Chinese saying: use cash, not credit cards!"
    


  The conspiracy count accused Edwards of lying when he admitted
to the affair during an interview on ABC but denied knowing about
any payments. "I've never asked anybody to pay a dime of money,
never been told that any money has been paid," he said.

      The indictment referred to Edwards' discussions with a former
employee in summer 2009 in which they prepared a statement to the
media in which he would admit he was the father of Frances Quinn
Hunter. A person familiar with the investigation has identified the
former employee as speechwriter Wendy Button. The indictment said
Edwards told her that he was aware Baron provided money to hide
Hunter from the media.

      "Edwards further told the employee that this was a huge issue
and that for `legal and practical reasons' it should not be
mentioned in the statement they were preparing," the indictment
said. 


The statement Edwards eventually issued seven months later
claiming paternity did not mention the money spent on Hunter.

      Former campaign staffer Andrew Young, who initially claimed
paternity of Hunter's child, also has said Edwards was aware of the
private financial support that helped keep the mistress satisfied
and secluded.

      The indictment said Edwards and Young began discussing who could
provide money to support Hunter in May 2007, around the time she
told the candidate she was pregnant. It says Young read Edwards a
note he got from Mellon saying she was "furious" over media
criticism of the candidate's $400 haircuts.
      


"From now on, all haircuts, etc., that are necessary and
important for his campaign — please send the bills to me," the
indictment quoted Mellon as writing. "It is a way to help our
friend without government restrictions." 

The indictment said
Edwards and Young then solicited money from Mellon.

      Edwards and Hunter began their relationship in 2006, just as the
2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee was plotting a second run
for the White House. She was hired to shoot behind-the-scenes video
footage of the prospective candidate. Edwards' political action
committee and a nonprofit affiliated with him each paid Hunter's
video-production firm about $100,000 for the work.
     


 Edwards initially denied having an affair with Hunter but
eventually admitted to it in the summer of 2008. He then denied
being the father of her child before finally confessing last year.


      Associated Press writer Mike Baker
contributed to this report from Raleigh. 

Gallery

Politics and Government News

Former presidential hopeful John
Edwards pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges that he
solicited and secretly spent more than $925,000 to hide his
mistress and their baby from the public at the height of his 2008
White House campaign.

John Edwards pleads not guilty to campaign finance charges

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