Why the Jury Acquitted John Edwards on Count 3

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Thu May 31, 2012 at 08:42:45 PM EST
Tags: John Edwards trial, Bunny Mellon (all tags)

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Why did the jury unanimously agree John Edwards was not guilty on Count 3 charging illegal campaign contributions from Bunny Mellon in 2008, while it was hung on the other counts?.

This was the one count that they could reject before without even having to decide whether the money was a campaign contribution. They could reject it based on both or one of the following:

Bunny Mellons' December, 2007 and January, 2008 payments were not deposited until after John Edwards withdrew from the Presidential race. Without those two checks, Bunny Mellon's contributions for the year did not exceed $25,000.

and/or

Venue in the Middle District of North Carolina was not proven by a preponderance of the evidence on this count. The crime charged was illegal acceptance or receipt of campaign funds. The funds weren't deposited in the Middle District. They weren't even sent there. [More...]

From Abbe Lowell's closing argument:

You will see Rachel Mellon's December 2007 and January 2008 checks were not deposited by the Youngs in the 8 Middle District of North Carolina, and the Judge will give you an instruction on how to apply that issue. You will see that Rachel Mellon's December '07 and January '08 checks were not deposited by the Youngs until after the campaign ended, and you will see that Fred Baron's funds were not paid in the Middle District of North Carolina.

The Government even told the jury in its rebuttal closing that payments after January 30, 2008 aren't charged in the Indictment:

The point is not that those payments after January 30th are charged, because they are not. The point isn't that they can be a basis of conviction, because they can't.

From the Government's initial closing argument, it offered this weak argument on venue for Mellon's 2008 contributions: Fedex routed it through the Middle District before delivering it elsewhere and they were part of a plan developed in 2007:

For Mrs. Mellon, she wrote all her checks in 2007 except the one for $200,000. So in 2007 she gave $525,000, and in 2008 she gave 200,000.

Mrs. Mellon's money in 2007, it was all received and deposited here in the Middle District. And as to the checks, which were deposited in 2008, they were received initially here in the Middle District by Federal Express, and they were part of the pl