Defense opens in John Edwards trial

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- After weeks of testimony about John Edwards' illicit affair and the money used to cover it up, his defense attorneys opened their case yesterday by digging into the details of federal campaign finance law.

Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts related to campaign finance violations. He is accused of masterminding a scheme to use nearly $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy donors to help hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Defense attorneys are attacking the foundation of the prosecution's argument that the money should be considered an illegal campaign contribution intended to influence the outcome of an election.

But even the federal government was split on that, the defense argues: The Federal Election Commission previously decided that the money was not a campaign contribution. In court yesterday, a prosecutor from the Department of Justice called that decision irrelevant to their criminal case and argued against the jury being able to hear about it.

The first witness called by the defense was Lora Haggard, who was in charge of campaign finance compliance for Edwards. In 2008, she was chief financial officer of the John Edwards for President committee.

She testified that the money from heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and campaign finance chairman Fred Baron has still never been reported on the campaign's required disclosure reports, because even after Edwards was charged FEC auditors said it didn't need to be.

She also said Edwards was never involved in formulating, filling out or filing campaign finance reports that were sent to the FEC. In the sixth count of his indictment, Edwards is accused of causing his campaign to file a false report through deceit.

"We never gave him a report to review," Haggard said. "He had no input."

The defense had intended to call former FEC chairman Scott Thomas as their first witness yesterday morning, but prosecutors objected to his potential expert testimony on the FEC's decision about the money. U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles scheduled a hearing for later in the day over whether to limit Thomas' testimony.