joe johns is in the courtroom. he s outside the courtroom in greensboro, north carolina. we have our jeffrey toobin, senior legal analyst, helping us along, along with ray lynn johnson and as well as our own sun yib hostin who has been good enough to join us. joe, first to you. it s hard to do it quickly, i know, and briefly. bring our viewers up to speed what we know right now and what we re waiting for. reporter: what we know is this is a six-count indictment against john edwards and the jury has indicated to the judge in the courtroom that they have reached a verdict on count three of that six-count indictment. that count three relates to a charge of accepting illegal campaign donations in the year 2008 from rachel bunny mellon, a 101-year-old woman who lives in upperville, virginia, very rich, it s right outside of middleburg, virginia, and she had taken upon herself to give jon edwards several hundred thousand dollars which according to one of her friends was griffin
and good evening, everyone. i m matt lauer. in for brian tonight. after a day of courtroom confusion and drama, there s a verdict and a mistrial in the john edwards case. a trial about campaign finance corruption that included weeks of sensational testimony about his private life and his very public fall from grace. late this afternoon, following the verdict, we heard from edwards himself for the first time right outside the courthouse. i want to make sure that everyone hears from me and from my voice that while i do not believe i did anything illegal or ever thought i was doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. and there is no one else responsible for my sins. i also want to say a word about my own children. cate who most all of you have seen, has been here every single day. she has been here no matter what. no matter how awful and painful the lot of the evidence was for her. evidence about her dad, evidence about her mom, who she loved so, so dea
pelley: good evening. with a former vice presidential mom nikkei couple of millionaires, a thief and a mistress, the john edwards trial had all the elements of a novel bit, apparently, not the elements of a conviction according to the jury late today. edwards was acquit of one count of campaign finance fraud in connection with his run for the 2008 democratic presidential nomination. the jury reported that it was hopelessly deadlocked on five other counts, so the judge declared a mistrial on those ending the case. anna werner has been covering the 17 days of testimony and nine days of deliberations, and she joins us now from the courthouse in greensboro, north carolina. anna. reporter: scott, as the foreperson told the judge, that the jury had failed to reach a verdict on five of six counts, edwards smiled. then we watched as he hugged his daughter, cate, and his parents, all clearly relieved. then he stepped outside to face everyone else. while i do not believe i did an
did an awful lot that is wrong. and there is no one else responsible for my sins. none of the people who came to court and testified are responsible, nobody working for the government is responsible. i am responsible. and if i want to find the person who should be held accountable for my seasons, honestly i don t have to go further than the mirror. it s me. it is me and me alone. i also want to say i m worried about my own children. kate, who all of you have seen, has been here every single day. she has been here no matter what. no matter how awful and painful, and then finally, emma, who turned 14 recently, and jack, who just turned 12, who i take care of everyday, and then finally my precious quinn who i love more than any of you could ever imagine. and i am so close to and so grateful for. but you know, this is the last thing i will say. i don t think god is through with me. i really believe he thinks there is still some good things ki do. today s news came after dramati
hide it from the public. public embarrassment. at the end of the day would the people have given him that money if they knew what it was going for? it strongly suggests that they would have. we know fred baron would have given the money. the jury instruction were on target. the judge said it doesn t have to be for one reason, if that was a reason to cover it up from the public to keep the campaign going that could be enough. they had to show that edwards had an intent to violate campaign finance laws. we have a savvy lawyer, someone who is very familiar with the election campaign laws. that s true. we have someone who consulted other lawyers about this. and we have the fec who said he committed no wrongdoing. very familiar with campaign finance laws i would say right there you make the point for the prosecution, which is he should have known what he was doing was wrong. the federal election commission doesn t think he did anything wrong. the same agency that is responsible