John Edwards Indicted on Campaign Finance Charges

After a two-year investigation, former vice presidential nominee/two-time presidential candidate/North Carolina senator and all-around not very popular guy John Edwards has been indicted by a federal grand jury on campaign finance charges. Federal officials believe that "the hundreds of thousands of dollars" given by two donors to help keep Edwards's mistress Rielle Hunter in hiding (Edwards's aide Andrew Young said that he was the father of Hunter's child at that time, as Edwards made his bid for the White House in 2008) should have been reported publicly as contributions, while Edwards's lawyers had claimed those funds were "gifts from friends intended to keep the affair a secret from his wife, Elizabeth." (In December, Elizabeth died of cancer.)

Plea agreement efforts with the Justice Department had been unsuccessful, perhaps because Edwards was not willing to go far enough in accepting criminal culpability, according to the Washington Post. In related news, the civil lawsuit filed by Hunter against Andrew Young and his wife over an Edwards/Hunter sex tape remains unresolved.

[ABC, MSNBC]