Jeff Smith: Is John Edwards a Criminal Or Just a Jerk?

As a former state senator who served prison time for lying about a campaign finance violation of approximately $10K, I unfortunately have a unique perspective on the John Edwards imbroglio – and also on the broader issues of campaign finance law, selective prosecution, and budget priorities in a time of scarcity.

If John Edwards goes to prison, then many other politicians should join him, according to the Department of Justice’s logic.

A candidate who innocuously accepts a second-hand sportcoat from a supporter who laments the candidate’s ill-fitting blazer, or accepts a free haircut from a friendly barber who understands the importance of candidate’s presentation – but doesn’t report them on quarterly contribution reporting form – has broken the law just as John Edwards did, albeit on a slightly smaller scale.

(FEC rules state that any gift to a federal candidate that is meant to influence an election and which has not been given routinely prior to the benefactor’s candidacy must be reported.)

But if the DOJ has anything to say about it, there will be a precedent set for candidates, even political neophytes who know little about the intricacies of federal campaign finance law.

Any failure to report such gifts would merit a felony charge and, potentially, prison time.

Let’s lay out a few pertinent facts about the Edwards case. A centenarian billionaire gave almost a million bucks to help him hide his pregnant mistress while he ran for president. Edwards didn’t tell his campaign treasurer about the gifts.

Who was hurt here other than Elizabeth Edwards?

We can agree that John Edwards make a mistake by succumbing to the “charms” of a bleach-blonde New Age party-girl who approached him (“You’re so hot”) at a NYC hotel bar one evening.

And he compounded this mistake with many more along the way. By carrying on an affair as his wife’s cancer progressed, he was appallingly self-indulgent and callous. By running for president while concealing it, he became one of the highest-stakes gamblers in history, literally risking the nation’s well-being on a Houdini-like escape from this tangled web.

But that doesn’t mean the government should have spent three years and millions of dollars to prosecute him.

No Bunny-money ever touched any of John Edwards’s campaign or personal accounts. Prosecutors don’t even allege that it did. And Ms. Mellon even paid gift taxes on the money. So should Edwards be prosecuted and potentially incarcerated for misleading his campaign staff about the fact that a billionaire kept his mistress living in style?

Is there anyone in the country who doesn’t think John Edwards is a world-class heel? Probably not. But do you want to help pay the millions of dollars for his prosecution and possible incarceration? I didn’t think so.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)