John Edwards

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Johnny Reid "John" Edwards, Jr. (born June 10, 1953), is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a United States senator from North Carolina.

In 2004, he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and he served as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008. In 1998, Edwards defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina's Senate election.

He resigned from the Senate to concentrate on a Democratic campaign in the 2004 presidential race towards the end of his six-year term.

He later became the running mate of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, becoming the 2004 Democratic nominee for vice president. Following Kerry's demise of incumbent President George W. Bush, Edwards began full time at the One America Committee, a political action committee he established in 2001, and was named director of the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill School of Law.

He served as a consultant for Fortress Investment Group LLC. Edwards was arrested by a federal grand jury on June 3, 2011 on six criminal counts of concealing multiple federal campaign contribution laws to mask an extramarital affair that he eventually admitted.

Edwards was not guilty on one count and the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five charges because the jury was unable to reach an agreement.

The Justice Department dismissed the remaining charges and did not attempt to retry Edwards.

Edwards was not guilty of a murder conviction, but the admission that he was involved in an extramarital affair and fathered a child when his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer undermined his public image and ended his career in politics.

Early life and education

Edwards was born in Seneca, South Carolina, on June 10, 1953, to Wallace Reid Edwards and Catharine Juanita "Bobbie" Edwards (née Wade). During Edwards' childhood, the family moved several times until eventually settling in Robbins, North Carolina, where his father was first promoted to supervisor and then to superintendent. His mother owned a roadside antique finishing shop and then became a letter carrier after his father resigned from work. The family attended a Baptist church.

Edwards, a football player in high school, was the first individual in his family to enroll in college. He attended Clemson University for one semester before transferring to North Carolina State University. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from NCSU in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in textile engineering and a 3.8 GPA, and later received his Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law (UNC).

Personal life

Elizabeth Anania met him while attending UNC. They married in 1977 and had four children (Wade in 1979, Cate in 1982, Emma Claire in 1998, and Jack in 2000). Edwards also has a boy out of wedlock, born in 2008, named Frances Quinn Hunter, who was born in 2008 with his ex mistress Rielle Hunter. Edwards denied being the father for more than two years before finally admitting to it in 2010.

In 1996, Wade was killed in a car crash after strong winds swept his Jeep off a North Carolina highway. He was praised by First Lady Hillary Clinton at The White House three weeks before his death as one of the ten finalists in an essay contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Voice of America for an essay he wrote on voting with his father. Wade, joined by his parents and sister, proceeded to speak with Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who later included Wade's essay and his obituary in the Congressional Record. In honor of their son's memory, Edwards and his wife founded the Wade Edwards Foundation; the aim of the non-profit group is to honor, inspire, and encourage young people in the pursuit of excellence." The Foundation sponsored Wade Edwards Learning Lab at Wade's high school, Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh, as well as scholarship competitions and essay awards.

Elizabeth Edwards announced on November 3, 2004, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated by chemotherapy and radiotherapy and went on to serve within the Democratic Party and her husband's One America Committee. Edwards and his wife announced on March 22, 2007 that her cancer had returned; she had been diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer with a bone and possibly to her lung. The cancer was "no longer curable," they said, but that it is completely treatable," and that they planned to continue campaigning together with occasional breaks as she required medical attention. Elizabeth published Resilience, a memoir published in June 2010. Her book is about her husband's affair and how she was affected by his husband's affair (see below). Elizabeth explores how long she was in the dark about the affair and how often her husband, John, lied about the facts of the case. She never mentions John's mistress by name, but she describes her as a "parasitic bunchie" and says she is "pathetic." Elizabeth also shares how she tried to forgive her husband after she first learned of it but then failed to find forgiveness as he continued to lie. Following Edwards' admission that he fathered a child with his mistressee, Elizabeth obtained a legal separation from him and planned to file for divorce after a mandatory one-year waiting period.

Elizabeth died of metastatic breast cancer at the age of 61 on December 7, 2010.

In Washington, D.C. He died in Embassy Row, 2215 30th Street, Washington, D.C. In 2004, he sold his house to the Hungarian Embassy in the United States.

In October 2007, The National Enquirer launched a series of reports relating to an adulterous relationship between Edwards and former campaign worker Rielle Hunter. Multiple news media outlets forecast that Edwards' chances for the Vice Presidency, as well as other executive positions, had been harmed by the allegations, which now include allegations that he fathered a child with Hunter and visited her and the baby girl at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Edwards denied the allegations at first, but after initially denied the allegations, the story was not widely covered by the media for some time. John Edwards revealed that he fathered Hunter's child on January 21, 2010.

Edwards confessed to the affair with Hunter in 2006, but denied being the father of her child in a Facebook interview on August 8, 2008. He admitted to being dishonest in denying the whole Enquirer story in the first place, but said that the investigation was long before the child's birth. Hunter said he was keen to take a paternity exam, but she refused to participate in a DNA test "now or in the future." At first, campaign aide Andrew Young said he, not Edwards, was the child's father. Edwards later denied the charge, but instead said that Edwards knew he was the child's father and had begged him to falsely accept responsibility.

Edwards and Hunter also arranged private meetings, and Edwards also reassured an anxious Hunter that after his wife died he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with a Dave Matthews Band appearance. Edwards advised him to "Get a doctor to falsify the DNA findings" and remove a diaper from the baby so he could quickly do a DNA test to see if this [was] really his child."

Young published a book on February 2, 2010 that delved into the subject. Young began collaborating with Aaron Sorkin on a film based on the book The Politician. An Orange County, NC judge ruled that Young and his wife were not allowed to publicize the film on February 23, 2012. The judge also ordered that an alleged "sex tape" of Edwards and Hunter be destroyed by the court. The judge also allowed only the records that were already in the public domain to be used for official purposes. Any other images and materials that have yet to be published can only be used for family use.

"I am a sinner, not a criminal," Edwards' extramarital affair and attempts to conceal it.

Edwards' campaign was being investigated for moving campaign funds to personal use related to the investigation, according to several outlets in May 2009. Edwards said that the campaign was in accordance with the probe. The appropriate US attorney declined to comment. According to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, members of Edwards' staff had told him that they had planned a "doomsday scheme" to derail Edwards' campaign if he came close to the nomination. The study, according to Joe Trippi, a senior advisor to the campaign, was "complete bullshit." Rielle Hunter appeared before the grand jury that was probing the case in August 2009. During an interview with GQ magazine on March 15, 2010, Hunter broke her silence and gave new details about the case. Voicemail messages allegedly left by John Edwards in March 2011 were discovered, which Young claims Edwards orchestrated the cover-up of his affair with Hunter.

Edwards begged his ex mistress to move to his North Carolina home, where he had previously lived with his wife in late 2011. Rielle Hunter revealed her breakup with Edwards on the same day she published a book about their relationship in 2012.

In her first television interview in over five years, Hunter talked to Steve Harvey on February 9, 2016. Hunter, who was then 51, said that the two were actually together up until February 2015.

On May 24, 2011, ABC News and the New York Times announced that the Public Integrity Section of the US Department of Justice had launched a two-year probe into whether Edwards used more than $1 million in political donations to mask his affair and that criminal charges of suspected campaign finance misconduct.

Edwards was charged by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on six criminal charges, including four counts of unlawful campaign contributions, one count of conspiracy, and one count of making false statements on June 3, 2011.

Judge Catherine Eagles of the Middle District of North Carolina scheduled jury selection on April 12, 2012 after postponing the trial due to Edwards' heart disease in February 2012. Edwards' trial began on April 23, 2012, after he faced up to 30 years in jail and a $1.5 million fine.

The Federal Election Commission ruled on March 13, 2012, that Edwards' campaign will need to pay $2.1 million in matching federal funds. The money was used, according to Edwards' lawyers, and the campaign did not receive any of the funds to which it was entitled, but the Commission denied the charges.

Twelve jurors and four alternates were seated, and opening arguments began on April 23, 2012. The closing arguments took place May 17, and the court heard the facts the next day.

Edwards was not guilty on Count 3, unlawful use of public funds (contributions to Rachel "Bunny" Mellon), but mistrials were reported on all other charges against him on May 31, 2012. The Justice Department ruled that it had dropped the charges on June 13, 2012, and that it did not wish to retry Edwards.

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Legal career

Edwards clerked for federal judge Franklin Dupree in North Carolina and joined Dearborn & Ewing, a Nashville law firm, in 1978, doing mainly trial work for a Nashville bank and other corporate clients. Lamar Alexander, a Republican and potential governor of and the United States, is a Republican and future governor of the United States. Senator Ed Owens of Tennessee was one of Edwards' co-workers. The Edwards family returned to North Carolina in 1981, settling in Raleigh, where he joined the company of Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove.

Edwards was put into a medical negligence case that had been deemed unwinnable by 1984, but the firm had accepted it only as a favor to an attorney and state senator who did not want to keep it. However, Edwards obtained a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his client, who had sustained brain and nerve damage as a result of a doctor's overdose of the anti-alcoholism drug Antabuse during alcohol aversion therapy. Edwards also sued the American Red Cross three times, arguing for AIDS transmission through contaminated blood products, resulting in a confidential agreement each time, and defending a North Carolina newspaper against a libel lawsuit.

Edwards portrayed a five-year-old child with cerebral palsy in 1985, a child whose mother's doctor did not decide to order a Caesarean delivery when a fetal monitor indicated she was in danger. Edwards received a $6.5 million jury for his client, but the judge reversed the decision "because it was "ineffective to support the verdict" five weeks later," but "too many people and prejudice had influenced it." He paid the plaintiffs $3.25 million, half of the jury's decision, but the child's family brought the lawsuit and received $4.25 million in a settlement. By winning this lawsuit, the patient was held accountable for failing to ask whether the patient knew the risks of a particular procedure.

Edwards gained national recognition as a plaintiff's advocate following this conviction. In the years that followed, he filed at least twenty similar lawsuits in the years that followed, and obtained judgments and settlements worth more than $100,000 for his clients. Around the country, similar lawsuits were filed. "The question, perhaps to avoid similar medical malpractice cases, is whether you rather have cases where you interfere and a child is disabled for life or dies in utero," Edwards said of an increase in Caesarean deliveries around the world.

Edwards founded his own business in Raleigh, now called Kirby & Holt), with a partner, David Kirby. He is best known as North Carolina's top plaintiffs' prosecutor. Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover, was the most significant case of his legal career. Valerie Lakey, a five-year-old girl with a pool suction-drain injury, was involved in the lawsuit. As she sat on an open pool drain whose protective shield had been removed by other children at the pool, the swim club had failed to install the covers correctly, she was disemboweled by the suction power of the pool drain pump. Despite 12 previous suits involving similar allegations, Sta-Rite continued to produce and sell drain covers that lack warnings. Sta-Rite protested that an additional warning would have made no difference because the pool owners were already aware of the importance of protecting the pool.

Edwards spoke to the jury for an hour and a half before commencing to testify. Wade, his son, who had been killed in the first minute, had been convicted shortly before. It will be "the most impressive legal success I have ever seen," Mark Dayton, editor of North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. The jury awarded the family $25 million, the largest personal injury award in North Carolina history. The firm paid the $25 million upfront while the jury was deliberating additional punitive fines rather than avoiding a hearing. Edwards and law partner David Kirby received the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's national award for public service for their participation in this litigation. Edwards was hired over other attorneys because he alone had agreed to a smaller percentage as his fee remained excessively high, according to the family, although all of the other lawyers they spoke with said they wanted the full one-third fee. The jury's award was unprecedented, and Edwards did not receive the typical contingency fee of one-third. The family was so impressed with his intelligence and dedication that they registered for his Senate bid the next year.

After Edwards received a large verdict against a trucking firm whose employee was injured in a deadly accident, the state legislature passed a law prohibiting such awards until the employer specifically punished the employee.

Edwards (with John Auchard) published Four Trials, an autobiographical book focusing on cases from his legal career in December 2003, during his first presidential run. Edwards left the law field and sought public office following the success of the Sta-Rite case and his son's death (Edwards wished his son would eventually join him in private law practice, according to this book).

Edwards, his mother Cate, and David Kirby formed Edwards Kirby, a new law firm formed in 2013, with offices in Raleigh and Washington, D.C.

Political career

Edwards supports efforts to eliminate poverty in the United States, including advocating for the establishment of one million housing vouchers over five years in order to place homeless people in middle-class neighborhoods. "If we truly believe that we are all equal," Edwards wrote, "we should all live together." He also supports "College for Everyone" efforts.

Although Edwards initially supported the Iraq war, he later resigned as a Washington Post op-ed in November 2005, in which he expressed regret for voting for the Iraq War Resolution and discussed three alternatives for success in the conflict. He condemned the "troop increase" in Iraq and called on Congress to suspend funding for the operation without a withdrawal deadline.

Edwards favor abortion rights and has a universal healthcare plan that encourages everyone to purchase health care, "requires that everyone get preventive care," and mandates employers to provide health care insurance or be taxed to fund public health care. He favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and condemns a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage; but he favors the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Edwards was one of the first presidential candidates to state his campaign as carbon-neutral, and he endorsed efforts to reduce global warming.

In 1998, Edwards ran for the Senate as a Democrat against incumbent Senator Lauch Faircloth. Edwards defeated Faircloth by 52% to 47.0%, a margin of over 83,000 votes despite being the underdog.

Edwards was also involved in the deposition of witnesses Monica Lewinsky and fellow Democrat Vernon Jordan, Jr. during the 2000 presidential campaign (along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, Gore's eventual nominee).

Edwards co-sponsored 203 bills during his time in the Senate. Lieberman's 2002 Iraq War Resolution (S.J.Res.46), which he cosponsored with 15 other senators, but did not pass to a vote, was one of them. (H.J Res. 10) He voted for a replacement resolution. The use of military force against Iraq was approved by 114% in the full Senate, with a vote of 77 to 23, which surpassed him by a margin of 77 to 23 on October 10, 2002.

On Meet the Press' appearance on October 10, 2004, he defended his vote, saying "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 confront Saddam Hussein." Saddam Hussein was a significant threat, according to me. I stand by that, and that's why [John Kerry and I] support our vote on the resolution. He later changed his mind about the war and apologized for the military authorization vote. Edwards also voted in favour of the Patriot Act.

Edwards, who was in other positions, was mostly pro-choice and favoring affirmative action and the death penalty. The Fragile X Research Breakthrough Act of 1999 was one of his first sponsored bills. He was also the first person to implement comprehensive anti-spyware legislation under the Spyware Control and Privacy Act. He advocated for extending the Bush administration's tax cuts and limiting mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent offenders. Edwards generally favor expanding legal immigration to the United States, but they also worked with Mexico to ensure better border protection and avoid illegal trafficking.

Edwards served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on Judiciary, and was a supporter of the New Democrat Coalition.

Edwards resigned from the Senate and praised Erskine Bowles, former White House Chief of Staff, as the successor to his position in 2004; Johnson defeated by Republican Richard Burr in the 2004 race.

Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer the day after her concession address. Edwards told interviewer Larry King that he doubted whether he'd return to practice as a trial lawyer and that he had no intention in replacing Terry McAuliffe as the Democratic National Committee chairman.

Edwards headlined the "100 Club" Dinner in February 2005, a major fundraiser for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Edwards was named director of the University of North Carolina's Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity in December for investigating how to move people out of poverty. Edwards visited ten major universities in order to advertise "Opportunity Rocks" in the fall. "A initiative aimed at assisting youth in combating poverty."

Edwards and his wife recorded their first podcast on March 21, 2005. Edwards gave an address in August to AFL–CIO, a potential key supporter in the Iowa caucus, in Waterloo, Iowa.

Edwards sent an email to his supporters in the following month and announced that he opposed Judge John G. Roberts' appointment as Chief Justice of the United States. Justice Samuel Alito's appointment to the Federal bench as an Associate Justice and Judge Charles Pickering was also opposed.

He visited homeless shelters and career education centers throughout 2005, as well as events hosted by ACORN, the NAACP, and the SEIU. Following Hurricane Katrina, he advocated for a broader earned income tax credit, as well as a crackdown on predatory lending; a decrease in the capital gains tax rate; and housing vouchers for racial minorities (to include upper-income communities) and a scheme modeled on the Work Progress Administration to rebuild the Gulf Coast. In Greene County, North Carolina, he unveiled the pilot program for College for Everyone, an educational initiative that he pledged during his presidential campaign, in which prospective college students can receive a scholarship for their first year in exchange for ten hours of work a week. In July 2008, the College for Everyone program was suspended.

Edwards, co-chair of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on US-Russia relations with Republican Jack Kemp, a former congressman, Cabinet minister, and vice presidential candidate. In March 2006, the task force submitted its findings. The International Herald Tribune published a related op-ed by Edwards and Kemp on July 12, which was published on July 12.

Edwards joined Fortress Investment Group as a senior advisor and consultant in October 2005, a position for which a close aide reported he received $500,000. Fortress owned a substantial interest in Green Tree Servicing LLC, which came to prominence in the 1990s selling subprime loans to smartphone owners and now services subprime loans originated by others, but Edwards denied knowing about this. Subprime loans are often approved for customers with poor credit histories but they often charge higher interest rates due to the danger, and some lenders with hidden fees and increased charges over time. A portion of the Edwards family's assets were invested in Fortress Investment Group, which had, in turn, invested a portion of its funds in subprime mortgage lenders, some of which had foreclosed on the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims. Edwards sank funds and said he'd try to assist the homeless families affected by Fortress's investments. Edwards later founded the ACORN-administered "Louisiana Home Rescue Fund," which was largely funded by his pocket to offer loans and grants to the families whose were foreclosed on by Fortress-owned lenders.

Edwards is now a personal injury advocate in Pitt County, North Carolina.

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