Chuck Burton / AP
John Edwards leaves the federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday.
A jury on Thursday reached a verdict on one count in the campaign finance trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards, but was ordered by the judge to resume deliberations.
In a confusing turn of events, the jury of eight men and four women told U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles on Thursday afternoon that it had reached a verdict. But when jurors indicated they had reached a unanimous verdict on only one of the six felony counts against Edwards, Eagles sent them back to the jury room.
The count on which the jury reached a verdict involved contributions from Edwards' contributor Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. The jurors did not indicate what the verdict was.
After deliberations resumed, a court spokesman told members of the media outside the court that no announcement was imminent. "It's going to be a while," he said. "Stand down. Just relax."
The charges against Edwards, 58, arose from about $1 million in donations while he was in the midst of the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination from two wealthy donors, Fred Baron and Mellon, a billionnaire banking heiress. The money was used to support and hide Edwards' pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, from the media.
Prosecutors argued that the donations amounted to violations of federal campaign finance laws; the defense said the money was a "gift" intended to allow Edwards to hide the affair from his ailing wife, Elizabeth, and the public. Elizabeth Edwards, who had previously been diagnosed with breast cancer, separated from John Edwards in early 2010 and died later that year.
If found guilty of all six counts, Edwards could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine. Each individual count carries a maximum sentence of 5 years and up to $250,000.
Attorneys for Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina and the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, and prosecutors alike painted Edwards as a liar and a bad husband. Where they differed was whether the scheme to hide his affair amounted to a crime.
The jurors — eight men and four women, six of them white, five African-American and one Hispanic — must decide whether Edwards "knowingly and willfully" violated a 1971 campaign finance law by orchestrating the scheme to support and hide Hunter.
- Full trial coverage on msnbc.com
- Full transcripts of closing arguments
- Analysis by Hampton Dellinger
Prosecutors alleged in their closing arguments that Edwards manipulated the campaign finance system to conceal the affair with Hunter, a videographer on his 2008 presidential campaign staff.
He "clearly knew the law and decided to violate it in order to salvage his campaign," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon said, accusing Edwards of cynically seeking to "keep her quiet" until the election was over "and his wife (had) passed away."
Lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell admitted in his closing arguments that Edwards had committed many "moral wrongs," but he insisted that none of the misdeeds was "a legal one."
"John's conduct is shameful, but it's human," Lowell told the jury.
Letters and other notes from Mellon appeared to be crucial to the jurors' deliberations — from their first day of discussions, they requested a stream of exhibits related to the nearly $750,000 she contributed.
Mellon, who is 101 years old, didn't testify during the trial, but her attorney and financial adviser, Alex Forger, offered extensive testimony that Mellon knew that her donations were intended to fund the "Hunter problem" and weren't given as campaign contributions.
A possible turning point came in mid-May, when Judge Eagles barred most of the defense's planned testimony from current and former members of the Federal Election Commission about a federal audit that concluded that the money didn't amount to campaign contributions subject to federal regulation.
Eagles ruled that evidence about the FEC audit was inadmissible because it couldn't be determined exactly what the commission knew or was told at the time.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Crossroads ad slams Obama over company that got taxpayer money from Governor Romney - Washington Post
The Rove-founded American Crossroads released a video this week that drew widespread media attention. It launched what is fast becoming a key GOP attack line: Questioning Obama’s record on “public equity.”
The video slammed Obama for investing government money in green energy companies like Solyndra, and losing it when the companies hit the skids. “Public equity President Obama — playing Wall Street games with our money,” the vid intones.
It turns out, however, that one of the companies in the ad also received millions in government money from another administration: That of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
The Crossroads video, which is embedded below, cites the Massachusetts company Evergreen Solar as an example of a company that received taxpayer money before declaring bankruptcy or suffering
“serious financial issues” — which the video derides as a “risky investment strategy.” Romney picked up that attack line today, appearing in front of a shuttered Solyndra outlet to bash Obama.
But three weeks into Governor Mitt Romney’s term, Evergreen Solar received $2.5 million from the Romney administration for a “major expansion and to cover operating losses as it tried to become profitable,” according to a February article in Politico. The investment was part of a broader program in which the Romney administration gave millions in subsidies to multiple other companies, Politico reported.
Evergreen ultimately filed for bankruptcy last year, making this case very similar to Solyndra. Evergreen’s presence in the Crossroads ad was pointed out by the Obama-allied American Bridge.
Asked for comment, Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio referred back to several portions in the Politico piece. Among them: The green energy investments were not Romney’s idea (though his administration reportedly jumped at it), and the company went bankrupt after Romney’s Dem successor, Deval Patrick, invested millions in it.
To be fair, the investment in Evergreen is tiny compared to Obama’s investment in Solyndra. But even some Republicans have said the principle is the same, and that in both cases, government was picking winners and losers, to use a phrase Romney now employs derisively.
What’s more, this is part of a larger pattern. Reuters reported yesterday that throughout Romney’s entire gubernatorial tenure, he pursued a “hands-on approach to economic development that favored some industries over others and, in some instances, singled out individual firms for special favors.”
More broadly, the “public equity” attack line is all about conflating Romney’s Wall Street background with Obama’s use of government investment, in order to blunt attacks on Romney’s Bain years and the Wall Street risktaking it invokes. Hence Crossroads’ description of Obama’s “Wall Street games” with public money. But as Molly Redden explained in a good piece, the comparison is absurd: Private equity is all about making massive profits for a tiny group of investors, while government stimulus is “aimed at benefitting the public, and which the Obama administration has distributed with considerable success.”
Money Flies Out Of Spain as Regions Pressured - Moneynews (blog)
Spain is the next country in the firing line of the eurozone's debt crisis, with spendthrift regions and shaky banks threatening to blow a hole in state finances and pushing funding costs towards levels that signal the need for a bailout.
The European Commission gave new help on Wednesday, offering direct aid from a eurozone rescue fund to recapitalize Spanish banks and more time for Madrid to reduce its budget deficit.
That helped lower the risk premium investors demand to hold Spanish 10-year debt rather than the German benchmark on Thursday, but it remained close to the euro-era record, at 520 basis points.
Bank of Spain data showed a net 66.2 billion euros ($82.0 billion) was sent abroad last month, the most since records began in 1990. The figure compares to a 5.4 billion net entry of funds during the same month one year ago.
Spaniards are worried about the health of their banks, hit by their exposure to a 2008 property crash, and have been sending money to deposit accounts in stronger economies of northern Europe.
The capital flight data predates the nationalization of Spain's fourth biggest lender Bankia in May when it became clear the bank could not handle losses from bad real estate investments, compounded by a recession.
Spain's centre-right government has contracted independent auditors to assess the health of its financial system in an effort to restore faith in its banks.
Spain must lay out its restructuring plans for Bankia to the European Commission (EC), a spokesman for the EU executive arm said on Thursday. He added that a domestic solution to the country's bank crisis would be better than a European rescue.
The government said on Wednesday it would finance a 23.5 billion euro rescue of the bank through the bank fund, FROB but senior debt bankers said that the syndicated bond market is currently closed for Spanish agencies.
REMOVING UNCERTAINTIES
The prospect that Spain might not be able to handle losses at its banks has pummeled shares and the euro, although both regained some stability on Thursday.
"What we need first of all is for the Spanish government to tell us its restructuring plans for Bankia, what options it is considering," said European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj in a radio interview.
"From there, we will study the plans and see whether they comply with requirements for public aid."
Spain should carry out the refinancing of its banking sector, laid low by a decade of unsustainable lending during a property boom, by market mechanisms or government funds, rather than a European rescue which would have negative connotations, Altafaj said.
"The sooner uncertainties are removed the better," he added.
The government also hopes to clear doubts on Friday about how it plans to ease financing problems among its 17 autonomous regions.
Treasury ministry sources said a mechanism to back the regions' debt would be agreed at the weekly's cabinet meeting and figures showing they were on track to meet their spending cuts targets would be released.
Fitch Ratings downgraded eight regions on Thursday, warning that a failure from the government to adopt new measures would result in further ratings cuts.
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria is due to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and International Monetary Fund Director General Christine Lagarde in Washington on Thursday.
The deputy PM will outline Spain's measures to tackle its crisis during the meetings, which were convened before Spain's situation reached boiling point, a government spokesman said.
© 2012 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.
Finance board: Voters should decide energy-saving contract - Eagle-Tribune
NORTH ANDOVER — The battle of the boards over energy saving continues.
While the Finance Committee did not take a formal vote on the issue Tuesday night, the advisory board is moving toward recommending that contracts of more than three years be approved by Town Meeting. The committee is particularly concerned about a proposed $4.3 million contract with Ameresco, a Framingham energy services firm,
Ameresco has said it will reduce the town's energy consumption and costs by making a host of improvements to buildings, including boiler replacements and more efficient lighting. The town would pay back the $4.3 million over 15 years and that bothers Finance Committee members.
The selectmen and School Committee, as well as Town Manager Andrew Maylor and Assistant Town Manager Raymond Santilli, support a pact with Ameresco.
Article 3 on the warrant for the June 12 Town Meeting authorizes the town manager and superintendent of schools to award contracts for more than three years if four selectmen or four School Committee members approve.
Finance Committee member Peter Besen proposed amending the article to require that such contracts be approved by Town Meeting.
"We don't want it to happen administratively," his colleague, Benjamin Osgood, said about the possibility of a contract with Ameresco being approved without voters' approval.
Thomas Dugan, presiding in the absence of Chairman Alan LeBovidge, said board members need to agree on the language of an amendment before moving forward with it.
"We don't have to make a decision tonight," Dugan said. The board invited Ameresco to send a representative to its meeting last night, but the company declined to do so, according to Dugan.
Dugan, Osgood, Matthew Remis and other Finance Committee members have said the board has not been given sufficient information about Ameresco to make an informed decision.
Money has changed – that’s the issue - New Statesman
Peter Selby responds to Nelson Jones's article Money and Morality.
When the St Paul’s Institute, working with JustShare, Penguin Books and the LSE, brought nearly 2000 people into St Paul’s for a public debate on the theme of Michael Sandel’s book, What Money Can’t Buy: the Moral Limits to Markets (see Nelson Jones, NS 25 May) it was because we knew the theme touched a nerve, not because we have an answer to peddle. The Institute has been engaged for some years, as an agency of the Cathedral, in seeking to get into debate with the financial institutions which are its ‘parish’; as such we could hardly think Sandel’s book unimportant, and we were delighted so many others thought the same.
That’s not the same as signing up to his thesis about the moral corrosion brought about by the intrusion of the market into all sorts of spheres to which it is not appropriate. Certainly we are signed up to the desire to get people thinking hard about which are the things that should be for sale and which should not be and, as Rowan Williams says in his review of What Money Can’t Buy, to do so on the basis of rational reflection rather than relying in feelings of revulsion when we see certain things getting a price.
Nelson Jones in his NS piece wonders whether things have deteriorated from some golden age when money didn’t play the part it now does, and points to many areas where things were much more monetised in the past than they are now. Tellingly, if slightly optimistically, he says we no longer sell people, and however bad the euro crisis gets we still won’t be doing that. There are examples he cites in the ancient world that are at least as unpleasant to think about as some of the examples Sandel gives of the intrusion of market thinking.
In my comments in the debate I voiced my own reservations about Sandel’s thinking, so much of which seems to me to address symptoms without digging deeper into causes. When he gives the example of prisoners being able to buy a cell upgrade, and when Nelson Jones points out that that has historical precedent, the deeper issue is not being faced by either of them: the selling off of incarceration as a business is common policy in the USA as it is increasingly in Britain. In the process of creating that market a financial interest is being created in locking people up. That can’t be unconnected with the fact that we in Britain lock up more people than other European countries and that a quarter of the rising number of prisoners in the world – and a third of all incarcerated women in the world, whose number has increased by a sixth in five years – are in the USA.
The figures that became a matter of public scandal during the Jubilee 2000 campaign for the relief of unrepayable third world debt showed all too clearly that the escalating power fo financial debt was depriving children worldwide of education, healthcare and life itself. The situation is infinitely worse than either Sandel or Jones portrays: the issue is not the buying and selling of things that should, or should not, be free, or whether people value things they pay for more than things they receive for nothing; in the end it is not about getting people to think more clearly than they do about whether markets should have moral limits though all these questions are important. What really matters is that in everything from the depletion of the planet’s resources to the requirement on Greek citizens to sell their democratic birthright to have their debts rescheduled money is deciding matters of life and death, and doing so more and more.
That’s why as a Christian and a theologian I am convinced money has acquired all the characteristics of an idol, aggrandising its power and claiming more and more of people’s lives. And that’s why, because of faith’s commitment to raise fundamental questions about anything that has the potential to be an idol, the St Paul’s Institute will go on engaging that debate at an ever more fundamental level. When it recently commissioned a report on the attitudes of those working in the financial sector (see Value and Values) we learned that most did not think the City should listen more to the Church’s guidance. But we now know, since the Sandel debate came to St Paul’s, that many people do want to know whether pressing economic questions have something to say about the meaning of life and whether those who profess faith are prepared to get involved in relating that faith to those questions.
Because, make no mistake, money did not acquire this power by accident. The last four decades, roughly since the massive oil price rises of the early 1970s, have seen vast increases in the amount of money in circulation, and technological advance has multiplied its speed of circulation. In the absence of means of regulating that the dominant policy has been one of deregulation, allowing the power of money to grow with its quantity. The results are not just the life and death issues I have described, but a situation in which all of us, rich or poor, are compelled to worry more and more about money and think more and more about it.
The issues of monetary reform, dismissed even by the independent commission on banking and widely ignored, are ones we need to press: just as ‘home ownership’ is a euphemism for housing debt, so ‘fractional reserve’ is now a synonym for debt multiplication: is one of the questions we need to ask about the post-2008 crisis whether the system on which we have relied for money creation for nearly a century fraught with inherent instability? I ask the question not because the Institute has a recipe or a policy to commend, but because it is our passion as a community of faith to ensure that these questions are honestly faced. The Sandel debate, and the Jones response are just a start.
Peter Selby is one of the interim directors of the St Paul’s Institute, and author of Grace and Mortgage: the Language of Faith and the Debt of the World. He was until retirement Bishop of Worcester, and Bishop to HM Prisons.
Panic in Spain as money flies out of country and head of European bank says Eurozone is 'unsustainable' - Daily Mail
|
A silent bank run in Spain could mean that the country is the next in the firing line of the ongoing euro zone debt crisis.
And with murmurings of a Greek exit still continuing, which caused many in Greece to remove their money from accounts, figures showed that Spanish money is being transferred at the fastest rate out of the country since records began.
66.2 billion euros ($82.0 billion) was sent abroad last month, compared to a 5.4 billion euro overall entry of funds during the same month this time last year.
Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), called for Eurozone leaders to come up with a plan for the future to keep the single currency afloat
Many Spaniards are withdrawing funds from accounts after becoming increasingly worried about the safety of banks in the country, opting for stronger economies in northern Europe instead.
The emergence of the mass withdrawals comes after one of Europe's most important banking figures went on the record to admit the current set-up of the single currency is unsustainable.
The head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, told EU leaders they must come up with a broad vision quickly for the future in order to weather the financial crisis.
Mr Draghi warned that the crisis had exposed the inadequacy of the financial and economic framework set up for the euro when it was launched in 1999.
Speaking at the European Parliament, he said: 'That configuration that we had with us by and large for ten years which was considered sustainable, I should add, in a perhaps myopic way, has been shown to be unsustainable unless further steps are taken.
A spokesman for the European Commission has urged the government to spell out its plans for the restructuring of Spanish bank Bankia
Mr Draghi said the central bank had done what it could to fight the debt crisis by reducing interest rates and giving one trillion euro (800 billion) in emergency loans to banks.
But it was now up to governments to chart a course ahead by reducing deficits, carrying out sweeping reforms to spur growth and by strengthening the euro's basic institutions.
A solution to the crisis looks increasingly desperate, however, as the prospect increases that Spain might not be able to handle losses at its banks.
A spokesman for the European Commission said that the Spanish government needed to be clear on its solutions for resolving the crisis.
Speaking in a radio interview, Amadeu Altafaj, said: 'What we need first of all is for the Spanish government to tell us its restructuring plans for Bankia, what options it is considering.
'From there, we will study the plans and see whether they comply with requirements for public aid.
'The sooner uncertainties are removed the better.'
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria is due to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and International Monetary Fund Director General Christine Lagarde in Washington on Thursday, in a bid to explain his government's plans for sorting out the looming crisis.
Mr Draghi appeared to put pressure on the Spanish and other European government's by saying that the sooner the plans for resolution have been specified, the better.
The head of the European Central Bank called on EU leaders including David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to come up with a long-term plan for the euro
He likened Europe's current struggles to those of a person crossing a river in thick fog while struggling against a strong current.
'He or she continues fighting but does not see the other side because it is foggy. What we are asking is, to dispel this fog,' he said in response to questions at the European Parliament.
European officials have worked to strengthen rules against piling up debt and to tighten surveillance over countries' budgets and economies.
But more wide-ranging measures - such as a common finance ministry or shared borrowing through so-called Eurobonds - have yet to find agreement.
Mr Draghi made the urge for leaders to do more at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
Mr Draghi made the urge for leaders to do more at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
He said one first step would be to impose tighter central control over banks through a regulator that could force them to restructure and take over the burden of bailing banks out.
The ongoing uncertainty looks likely to have political implications in Ireland, as voters went to the polls to decide on the European fiscal treaty.
About 3.1 million people have the right to vote in the only referendum being held across the EU on the controversial agreement to impose stricter budget controls.
The earliest indications of a result will not be known until mid-morning tomorrow when the political tally men get to work with estimates from the 43 constituencies around the country.
And turnout is crucial with low voter numbers in two previous European referendums giving the anti-treaty side a huge boost.
The Taoiseach said a strong Yes would send a message that Ireland is on the road to the recovery and that it would help continue the strong flow of investment into businesses seen over the last few months.
'While there are still difficult challenges ahead, I hope people will vote Yes to continuing the progress we've made together,' he said.
Three recent opinion polls have revealed a 60/40 split in favour of the European fiscal treaty among Irish voters but the No side are always boosted by lower voter turnout and whether the middle class vote can be mobilised is likely to determine the outcome.
Fears are mounting that the financial crisis could be spreading increasingly across the Eurozone
The Taoiseach has said he was confident, but never over-confident, before polling day but his number two refused to make a call.
Labour Party Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton is the only senior figure to nail her colours to the mast and claim victory for the Yes side.
Ireland is the only country in Europe holding a referendum on the treaty as it is obliged to put major EU reforms to the public test, according to the Constitution.
Its record is unpredictable, having rejected the last two at the first vote only to accept the EU reforms in a re-run the following years. Regardless, the treaty will come into effect with the support of 12 states, with or without Irish support.
Voting has already taken place in some islands off the coast of Ireland - in Donegal voters cast ballots on Monday on Tory, Gola, Inishfree, Inishbofin and on Arranmore which, with 43 voters from an electorate of 173, had its lowest turnout ever.
The Mayo islanders polled on Tuesday while the Aran islanders and others off Connemara voted yesterday and the seven islands off the south-west of Co Cork vote with the rest of the country today.
A total 25 of the 27 European Union states have accepted the text of the treaty - with the exception of the UK and Czech Republic.
Only three states have ratified the treaty in full - Greece, Portugal and Slovenia - while Germany, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Austria and Denmark have begun the process.
Canadian Finance Minister confirms no bailout for RIM - Examiner
Slideshow: Clint Eastwood is blowing out 82 candles today.
See the star through the years
Document: Money found in Price's safe proceeds of conspiracy - WFAA
DALLAS – Federal authorities say that $229,590 in cash found in a safe in John Wiley Price’s Oak Cliff home last summer, as well as another $230,000 in money from a land deal, were all proceeds of conspiracy to commit money laundering, bankruptcy fraud and bribery, according to a document filed Thursday in Dallas federal court.
FBI agents found the money in Price’s safe while serving search warrants on his home last June. They also served search warrants on his assistant, Daphne Fain, and political consultant Kathy Nealy.
Agents also seized $50,000 and $180,763 from a Dallas County builder who was set to pay that money to Price for the purchase of a vacant nine-acre tract on Grady Niblo Road in Dallas. The builder’s attorney has said he did nothing wrong.
Billy Ravkind, Price’s attorney, said Thursday morning that he was still reading the government’s filing and had no comment.
No one has been charged with any crime in the investigation, which is ongoing.
The U.S. attorney’s office made the allegations in a civil lawsuit filed to keep the seized money. In it, they detail how agents found the money in the safe, stashed in various envelopes. Documentation found with the money bundles includes various banks and addresses in Dallas, Forney and elsewhere.
Price filed for bankruptcy in 1996, and it was discharged in 2001.
Price, according to the government’s filing, has claimed ownership to $115,000 of the seized money. Fain, Price’s assistant, has claimed $114,590.
Price and his attorneys have fought the seizure of the money, prompting the government to have to file documentation of why they believe it was proceeds from criminal activity.
The FBI’s investigation went public last summer with the serving of search warrants.
FBI agents are investigating Price’s use of campaign funds, his land deals, the African heritage festival he founded known as KwanzaaFest, his expensive car collection, as well as various businesses controlled by his associates.
Agents are also examining his role in in the much-publicized controversy involving an alleged shakedown scheme that targeted the California developer behind a massive logistics center in southern Dallas County known as an inland port.
No comments:
Post a Comment