As to the charges,

The indictment alleges Fieger illegally circumvented limits on individual campaign contributions by recruiting "straw donors" -- including employees, contractors and their family members -- to purport to make the then-maximum contributions of $2,000 each to Edwards. In fact, the more than $125,000 in donations were paid for by Fieger and Johnson and the Fieger firm, the indictment alleges....The firm reimbursed the employees by disguising the payments as bonuses and disguised reimbursements to contractors as payments for services....

The Justice Department pointed out in its press release that John Edwards and his campaign had no knowledge of Fieger's actions:

....Edwards and his campaign officials were unaware of the illegal nature of the contributions and the Edwards campaign cooperated fully with the investigation, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.

Then there is the alleged coverup, forming the basis for the ten year obstruction of justice charge:

On the obstruction of justice charge, Fieger tried to impede the grand jury investigation by shifting responsibility for the contributions to a deceased officer of the Fieger firm, attempted to mislead the grand jury by telling witnesses false information which he expected to be repeated and attempting to conceal an incriminating document, the indictment alleges.

Fieger responds:

In his statement, Fieger said federal officials have "repeatedly threatened to prosecute my employees unless they lie about me."

Fieger will be reprented by Gerry Spence:

Spence told The Detroit News he and Fieger will speak to the media Tuesday morning at a news conference at Fieger's office.

"We will contest this and fight it until we haven't any breath," Spence said.

I don't envy Fieger. His life is bound to be miserable over the course of the next year as he fights this Indictment. And I disagree with this article that says his indictment may be trouble for Edwards because of his heavy anti-lobbyist contribution message. The feds have said the campaign was in the dark and Fieger, while a trial lawyer, like many of Edwards' past contributors, is not a lobbyist.

Edwards has strong labor union support in Michigan and I suspect he will keep it. I doubt Fieger's indictment will affect the race, particularly since Fieger is a hero to many Democrats in the state who may now view him as the target of an unfair, politically motivated prosecution by a corrupt Republican justice department.

Good luck, Geoffrey.