Hunt For Porn Star In Severed Body Case; Verdict Reached In Edwards Case
BOLDUAN: We're continuing following the breaking news coming out of Greensboro, North Carolina, where a verdict has been reached in the corruption trial of former senator and former presidential candidate John Edwards. We've got our team in place. We are awaiting the verdict. Joe Johns, he is in the courtroom ready to bring that when it comes. I have John King standing by with me who can bring a lot of perspective on the man and kind of the fall, if you will. We also have Jeffrey Toobin, our senior legal analyst. He will be joining me to break it all done as well as CNN producer Ray Lynn Johnson. She has been following this probably closer than most and she'll be bringing a good perspective on that. I want to first go to John King. John, you know more about this man than probably many people do. Pretty amazing that we're talking about the verdict, kind of his fate, and where he was and could be and where he is today, right?</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's the fall that you mentioned. In some way it's a tragic Shakespearian drama in the sense that when John Edwards came to Washington, he was the new Democrat from North Carolina, young attractive, a public speaker who won a seat that was held by a very, very conservative Republican. Democrats took that as not only do we have a young rising star in the party we are making inroads in a state where we have struggled for so, so long. He goes from that, a young senator, to being, because of his appeal, because of his potential to change the map, if you will, he's suddenly his party's vice presidential nominee for John Kerry back in the 2004 election campaign. And then of course, that made him a leading contender for the Democratic nomination in what turned out to be a field of stars. Hillary Clinton ran for the nomination. The young senator, Barack Obama, who ironically how did Barack Obama become a national figure? At the very convention that nominated John Edwards to be the vice presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Not yet Senator Barack Obama gives a keynote speech and then rockets into national stardom. But when you look at the trajectory of John Edwards, he went up, Kate, his trajectory was up so fast and because of this allegations almost regardless of the verdict, back down to earth, a very humbling ending to the political career of John Edwards.</s>BOLDUAN: Sorry, John. I'm just hearing we are being told right now in my ear that the jury is entering the room, which we would assume means that we will be getting this verdict very soon, but you said this fall, it is really, really amazing as well as how public it was. The "National Enquirer" and how salacious the details were. I want to quickly move, John, to Jeff Toobin, our senior legal analyst. He's with me in New York. Because Jeff, I want you to help me kind of break this down. A lot of our viewers have not been following this from the very day-to- day -- from the beginning of this on the day-to-day. This is actually a pretty complex trial in terms of campaign finance law. Where do you land on where you think the verdict is going to be and kind of what this argument and this verdict really is hinging on?</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the facts of this case -- what's unusual about this case are that the facts, the core facts of this case, are not really in dispute. Everybody knows that Bunny Mellon, the Virginia heiress, and Fred Barron, the Texas trial lawyer, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Rielle Hunter who had John Edwards' baby. That's not disputed. Both sides agree on that. The question really comes down to John Edwards' intent. Was his failure to report those hundreds of thousands of dollars as campaign contributions, was that a criminal act? That's what this case is really about. Edwards' defense is, I thought this money was to be used for protecting my family, protecting my wife from the truth, deceiving my wife. The prosecution is saying, no, that money was to preserve and sustain the presidential campaign. So Edwards' intent about what that money was for is really what this case is about.</s>BOLDUAN: Now, let me quick check with the control room. Bear with me, everybody. Is our Joe Johns ready yet? I see him in one of the monitors because I saw him running out of the courtroom. Is he ready yet? OK, so we'll continue. I know he's miking up -- hold on? OK, I'm going to hold on and wait for Joe Johns to bring this to us. Tell me when he is ready so we can get this verdict right away. Joe johns just ran to the camera coming out of the courtroom. Joe, what do you know?</s>JOHNS: Right, count three only. They've reached a verdict on count three only. You know, this is a six-count indictment. And that is the only count that they have apparently agreed upon and reached a unanimous verdict. They didn't deliver that unanimous verdict in the courtroom. The judge instructed them to go back into the jury room and apparently was going to talk over with the lawyers precisely what they're going to do now. Count three would be one of the -- well, it depends on how they're doing this. If they're looking at the indictment, count three is a count relating to -- is a count relating to Bunny Mellon. This is one of the two counts that the rich woman from Virginia who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to John Edwards. The issue, of course, is accepting illegal campaign funds from her. So that's what we know. I mean, there were five other counts in this indictment that they either still have to work on, and I know Jeffrey Toobin can probably tell you, Kate, better than me. But I have seen it before in federal cases. Typically if the jury hasn't reached a decision on any of the other charges, at least as to those charges, the judge has the option of issuing what's called an Allen charge. An instruction to the jury that you need to work a little bit harder. I'm going to send you back to deliberate some more. We have a graphic on that and I can talk to you a little bit or you can ask Jeff Toobin about it if you so desire.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. You're doing a great job. If this case wasn't complex and dense in the facts of the case and the fact we're dealing with campaign finance law, it sounds like the verdict is equally as complex and confusing. We're not quite there yet is the laymen's terms of what I'm gathering. Let me bring in Jeffrey Toobin. Joe, thank you so much for the hassle. So Jeff, what we know now is that the jury reached a unanimous decision on count three. This is the count dealing with allegedly illegal campaign contributions by Bunny Mellon. I think it's somewhere in the area of $725,000. But from what I'm gathering, we don't know yet, which way the jury has decided on that. Is that what you're hearing as well?</s>TOOBIN: Absolutely, yes. No, Joe Johns got right to the point. We don't know whether it's guilty or not guilty and that's obviously what we all want to know. But let me put it simply this is a mess. This is not how trials are supposed to end.</s>BOLDUAN: For our viewers, how is this a mess? I mean, the verdict is difficult to understand.</s>TOOBIN: No, I assure you the legal term for this is a mess because juries are supposed to resolve an entire case. They are supposed to reach verdicts on every case -- on every count before them. Now, if they reach a partial verdict, it is possible for the government to accept the verdict, whatever it may be in that count, and then go back and retrial the defendant on the remaining counts. But that is a cumbersome, expensive, inconvenient, some people would say unfair way to end a criminal trial. So everyone involved, certainly the judge, wants to get a complete resolution of this case in this trial, not an extended trial. And what makes the situation particularly messy and difficult to resolve is that often when you have a hung jury, it's a hung jury on all the counts. And that at least you can just sort of start over from scratch. If you have a partial verdict, that makes retrying the case even more difficult and complicated. It's not to say it's impossible, but it is more difficult for everyone concerned to have a partial verdict than no verdict at all. Again, I don't want to assume too much, but what most judges would do when informed that, we, the jury, have reached a verdict on one of six counts, the judge would invariably say go back to work. Keep trying. You know, there are lots of good reasons to resolve this now. And I am certain the judge is not going to just dismiss the jury and say, well, that's all --</s>BOLDUAN: I will tell you, Jeff, you are essential in understanding a lot of stuff a lot of times, and you are very essential today because I'm going to need you to analyze when this all comes down. We have some additional information I want to bring to our viewers, that the judge is -- has told -- the judge is taking a five- minute recess, that the defense is asking for a mistrial. The prosecution though wants the jurors to continue to deliberate. Obviously wants to work more on that. I want to now go back to Joe Johns who was in the courtroom, hustled out, and is now with us from right outside the courtroom in Greensboro, North Carolina. Joe, what are you hearing now?</s>JOHNS: Right. That was actually what I wanted to tell you. The judge essentially has been asked by the prosecution to send those jurors back into the jury room to try to get resolution on the other five charges. The defense, of course, has taken a completely different tact. They want to know now what the decision is on the one charge, on that count three, and as to the others, the defense has actually asked the judge to declare a mistrial. So that is what the judge has to sort of ponder, and if past practice is any indicator, what she does typically is take 5 minutes, sit there and think, and then reach a decision as to what she's going to do next. But it's pretty clear that this is kind of an unusual situation because they've only got, you know, a decision on one count out of six. The defense is probably feeling pretty good about that even though they don't know what that decision is.</s>BOLDUAN: Right, and that's a good point especially since they're now in their ninth day of deliberations. Stick with me for a second. I want to head back to our john king who has been following this as well. John, Jeff Toobin called this in legal terms, this is a mess. One thing I found kind of surprising, I think many court watchers did throughout the trial, is that John Edwards himself did not take the stand. Rielle Hunter did not take the stand. You'd almost think that John Edwards, him being a well-known attorney himself, would want to take the stand and kind of have his day and his say, right?</s>KING: He has a very strong lead defense counsel, Abbe Lowell who has handled tough cases, very high profile cases for years. And a lot of people who know John Edwards think, yes, his DNA and his reflexes give me a chance with that jury because that's how he made his name, as trial lawyer, persuading juries to go his way in big cases. My understanding is that Abbe Lowell made a very persuasive case to John Edwards that the risks would far outweigh the benefits if that were the case. They thought if they argues as Jeff Toobin said, the facts aren't really in dispute. The question is was the money hush money out of a campaign or was it funnelled through a campaign. Was it about having a viable presidential campaign or just having John Edwards keep this from his family members, specifically his late wife. And so the legal questions got to the point where I am told that Abbe Lowell said we do not want to put you on the stand that would turn this more into theatre and add more risks to it. There are very complicated legal questions here. The jury is clearly after nine days of deliberation asking a lot of questions, asking for the exhibits, clearly having a very hard time with this one. So we look at the legal questions. There's not really a political question here. John Edwards is done. He's done politically, but there's a personal toll. There's a personal toll. This family, we've seen Cate Edwards going in and out of court every day. There are two other younger children. They have lost their mother and they are going through this. So from our personal standpoint, you shake your head. There are some people who are asking why did the government prosecute this case because John Edwards has no viability in the future? There are others say why didn't John Edwards take a plea deal? Again, on that front, the plea deal question. The plea deals put before him I'm told all required some jail time and giving up his law license and he was adamant he wouldn't do that.</s>BOLDUAN: I think you make a great point about the personal toll. Obviously, we are awaiting to remind our viewers, for more information about the verdict. The judge has taken a five-minute recess here. But we know a verdict at least on one count has been reached. But one thing that often gets lost in kind of the spotlight of a trial and kind of the pomp -- I don't know, the circus around it is the personal toll. Cate Edwards has not only -- and her siblings have not only lost their mother and seen the down fall of their father, she has endured being in the courtroom with him almost every day. There was some question if she would even take the stand at one point because she seems to be such a strong voice, if she was going to make the case to kind of save her father.</s>KING: And there was one day when she left the courtroom quite emotionally when they were getting into testimony about, I believe, I could be wrong about this, but I believe it was about what did Elizabeth Edwards know and when did she know it essentially and Cate Edwards left the courtroom. I don't pretend to know Cate Edwards . I met her a few times back in the 2004 campaign, perhaps in the 2008 campaign may have encountered her at some early events. I just remember her from very brief encounters at events with her father as a young, much younger woman then than she is today. With just remarkable poise and a bubbly personality, a very friendly person, someone who was always asking questions about what we did in our business when you met her. She wanted to know about politics and events and the media coverage of politics and the media coverage of politics. She's a very curious, charming, delightful young lady who is a bit older now and being very loyal to her father in what has to be an incredibly painful experience.</s>BOLDUAN: All right, John King. Thanks so much, John. I'm sure you have to get ready for your show at some point. But thank you so much for the perspective.