house. he is inside of the courthouse in winston salem courthouse. and you can see it in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, but we are expecting john edwards along with the defense attorney to walk in front of a crowd of reporters, and we will bring it to you live as soon as we see it, but i know that my pal, joe johns, has been out there off and on covering the story, and he has literally walked outside of the courtroom. joe, first, talk me through what you have just experienced inside of the courtroom. you saw edwards, himself, in front of the magistrate, and how did he appear and what did he say? did you see his daughter with him as well? >> i didn't see his daughter. and it is funny, you know, i have covered john edwards for a long time, and i have to tell you that it looked like the exact same john ed warwards not hair out of place. i have known his lawyer for a long time and been around town for about 15 years. he looks like he has aged immensely and has gray hair, but for some reason john edwards looks like the guy running around the 2008 campaign, and his lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf on all six charges. edwards had to answer a few questions from the court, and mostly about setting bail. and it appeared as i walked out of the courtroom to call you, brooke, that the judge was about to impose one sort of unique condition, i think, beyond the things like, we are going to take your passport away for a while and tell you not the leave the country, but there was one unique condition that he imposed and that was that john edwards should stay away from rachel bunny melon who is the philanthropist from virginia who has apparently allegedly or apparently on the record delivered, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars to him, and whose name is sort of tied up in this case. she is one of the two donors who gave him money that the justice department now says were campaign contributions, but which the edwards' defense team disputes. and the edwards' defense team essentially is saying that this is money given to him for personal reasons, and those personal reasons being to keep information about his relationship with rielle hunter from public view, so that wife, elizabe elizabeth, who is dying of cancer wouldn't learn of it. so, apparently, edwards is being told to stay away. >> stay away from rachel bunny melon who by the way is 100 years of age and the other donor here, center of all of this fred barron who is now deceased. did we lose joe, guys? that is a yes. okay. hopefully we will get joe back up and he can walk me through some of the counts. this is what i know and i have the indictment and i read it today. he was indicted this morning by a grand jury in raleigh, and six counts that joe mentioned and four involving illegal payments and one involving conspiracy and one involving false statements and as a reminder, we are expecting to see john edwards any moment in front of the members of the media who are camped out in front of winston salem, and in the meantime, this whole case that joe alluded to whether he used campaign funds to hide his affair with his mistress and photographer. we are looking at pictures of rielle hunter and this child that ultimately edwards admitted to fathering. talk to me more specifically about the counts. i had mentioned the six counts. what is it that he is facing? tell me more about the defense attorney, because he is a high profile guy. >> yes, very high profile guy, greg craig, who was involved in defending president clinton in the impeachment, and actually, i think worked white house counsel for president obama, so he is one of the most high-powered lawyers in washington that you can get. now, as to the counts, the first count is a conspiracy count, and that is, you know, a conspiracy to break the law with regard to campaign finance funds. and then there are a number of counts in there having to do with illegal contributions. and then, there's also a false statements count relating to the government's theory that edwards disclosed or hid or tricked the government by not giving out information about the nature of these campaign contribution, because there are limits as to what you can, as to what you can give a candidate who is running for president. i just so you know it appears to me that we are getting pretty close to the moment when john edwards and his lawyer walk out of here, but they may be in there for a minute or two, but he has five lawyers. >> he has five lawyers. joe, if you can, describe the scene? i can only imagine the helicopters above, and the throngs of media covering the spectacle and look at this, live aerial pictures, and look at the cameras. i can't even count them here on television, because it is a massive presence and describe it for me, because you are in the thick of it. >> yeah, a lot of the news media interest in from frankly all over the world. and the other thing that you have to realize is that there are a number of people like myself who actually started out in raleigh, north carolina, today, and then found out after the indictment was handed up that the docket had been set up right here in winston-salem. that's about an hour and 40 minutes away in the middle district of north carolina. so, there's some people who actually started the day early, jumped on the road, and drove down here and sort of added to the throng. because, you know, you have to think about this, and why is that? it is because number one, you have a story that has for so long been a tabloid sensation in the united states because of the sort of tawdry and sordid nature of the details, and then you have the political story of really some import because this was a man who ran for president of the united states and was also a united states senator, and then you have a, you know, the legal implications of it is not clear at all that the prosecution has a cut-and-dry case, if you will, to, you know, to send john edwards off to the pokey, because there are a lot of people who say, that this is kind of a novel interpretation, and you look at what greg craig said, you know, before he went into court, and he called it an unprecedented prosecution by the united states government. >> joe johns, let me hop in here. stand by for me, because i want to remind all of you as we have been tracking this whole live picture and not there right now, but the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and here we are again, live pictures where we are expecting to hear from the former north carolina senator and former presidential hopeful john edwards so keep your eye on the screen, but let me tell you this, prosecutors have accused edwards of using campaign donations to make payments to his videographer and mistress rielle hunter. edwards has admitted to a affair with her while his wife, e l elizabe elizabeth, battled kearns, bcan at first he denied it, but then later he did admit to it. and one of the rare interviews with oprah with rielle hunter. >> does he see her regularly? >> yes. >> does he know that you are doing the interview? >> he didn't think it was a great idea, but he supports me if i feel like in my heart i need to. >> do you love him? >> yes, very much. >> does he still love you? >> you would have to ask him, but of my experience, yes. >> has he ever told you that he loved you? >> yes. it is my experience that he loves me. >> do you trust him? >> very much. >> edwards' attorney says that the money given to edwards to keep his affair a secret by two political backers was a gift and private matter. let me talk the legalities of the case because i want to bring in sunny hostin who is live in new york. sunny a little known statute that serves as the foundation of the case here, and explain to me what the harvey statute is? >> well, it is an advisory opinion done by the fec, which is the federal election commission, and in that case, it was a june 2000 advisory opinion, and interestingly enough, the founder of adam and eve the sex product company, his name is philip harvey, and he wanted to give $10,000 to federal candidates. and so he asked for guidance, advice from the fec, and the fec said actually, you can give some personal gifts if the you would have given them, if the person wasn't a federal candidate. another thing that they said was that it allows for gifts of a personal nature, but only if they are customary, and only if you have given them to this person all of the time. so that the government is saying, well, this is very different from what happened here with john edwards and would bunny melon have given him over $700,000 had he not been running for the presidency? and so that really is the ground that the government is standing on. the reason that the defense i think is saying that this is unprecedented is because it is not a statute and not black letter law, and it is just an advisory opinion. and so, it is too soon of course to tell whether or not this opinion will play a large part in the government's case, but i suspect that this is what they are hinging it on. >> sunny standby, because i have questions about plea discussions and versus ultimately going to trial and what could happen beyond that, and standby, because i want to bring joe johns on, and as you were explaining he has a team of five attorneys led by greg craig who represented president bill clinton during the impeachment trial, and he spoke today. what does he say? >> well, he basically made clear to the media that john edwards was going to e plead n g ting t which he did and by the way, i just found out from our people who stayed in the courtroom when i ran out to talk to you, that john edwards was released in his own recognizance and he didn't have to set bail and free to leave. >> and what was -- >> well, we are told that he is going to come out and make a brief statement. we are told that he would be with his older daughter kate, and that he would not take any questions which would certainly be customary. and, you know, i guess that there is always a couple of views on that for people who are doing media strategy for big high profile cases like this, and one of them is that you make sure that the person doesn't look afraid to step in front of the cameras, and there is always that hope that if in a situation like this that the defendant comes out and talks, there won't be so many people beating around in the bushes trying to get an interview at a later stage. >> well, joe johns, hold that thought for me, as we look at the live pictures as we are all waiting and hoping to hear and see senator john edwards. and we want to hear from his lead defense attorney. hold that thought. we will be right back. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. 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[ man ] ♪ trouble ♪ trouble, trouble trouble, trouble ♪ ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry ♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life. i want to take you back to live breaking news of john edwards out of winston-salem, nc state nshg, and this whole thing started in raleigh, north carolina, where a grand jury indicted him on six charges that he violated campaign finance laws in 2008 when he ran for president. we have joe johns in the thick of this scene outside of the court in winston-salem, north carolina, and also sunny hostin to talk about the legal aspect with us. and joe, back to you, and let's pick up to the lead defense attorney greg craig, and what did he say today? >> well, he came before the cameras briefly, and another one of the situations where he gave us a situation of what he is thinking about the case, so rather than sort of shorthand it for, you we listen to it, because we have the sound bite cued up for you. >> no one has ever been charged civilly or criminally with the claims that have been brought against senator edwards today. this is an unprecedented prosecution. much less, an unprecedented civil case. no one would have known or should have known or could have been expected to know that these payments would be treated or should be considered as campaign contributions, and there is no way that senator edwards knew that fact either. >> so, you know the knowledge thing is just what is so very important, the idea that you really can't commit a crime without having knowledge of committing it. so, i mean, basically the contention seems to be if you read between the lines that, look, there is no crime, so that there can be no conspiracy, because there was no knowledge. and that's going to be their argument and we will see how they refine it in the days and weeks to come. >> joe, stand by. again, a reminder to our views, we are staying on the live picture, because we are waiting and expecting to hear from john edwards, himself, because as joe said there is no bail set and the judge said that he is free to leave. but let me read a couple of conditions ash and this is interest, and sunny hostin, i want you to pay attention, because this is what i have from cnn's ray lynn johnson, he has been released on his own recognizance, but he has to stay away from one of the donors bunny mellon and sur rurender h passport. is that ak? >> well, it is a risk. and what is fascinating is that he cannot speak to bunny mellon and they are good friends and they believe she will be a witness. she is 100 years old, so i wonder if they will try to preserve her potential testimony, and depose her with audio tape and videotape so that her story can be told to a jury. 100-year-old witness, let's, you know, think about that, that is sort of a difficult witness to get to and from north carolina in and out of the courtroom. so those two conditions are very, very interesting here. they certainly don't want john edwards to speak to what it seems to be their star witness. >> all right. so you have the two donors here from which this money is stemming from. you have mrs. mellon 100 years of age tough to testify at that age, and fred barron who is no longer with us. so, how might those two donors of the information that at least we know that mellon might provide and help or hinder edwards' case? >> well, it is all about those donors, because the government has to prove they were in fact campaign contributions, and in order to prove that, they have to prove that the correct shuns were made, and that their personal expenses of course of rielle hunter, and they have to prove those contributions werer meant to keep the campaign alive and not just meant to keep it at secret from elizabeth edwards who we know was stricken with cancer at that time, and who has died since. so those are fact issues. if bunny mellon can get on the stand and say, well, no, john edwards didn't know anything about it, and that is the second element that joe johns said, they have to prove these were campaign contributions and were being paid, they have to have bunny mellon get on the stand and say, these were in fact contributions so that the campaign, the 2008 presidential campaign could be kept alive, but if she is on the witness stand and says, no, john edwards knew nothing about it, and in fact, they were personal expenses and meant so that elizabeth edwards would not find out about it, that is a very, very good thing for the defense. >> what about we know that the defense team and the federal prosecutors, they have held plea discussions so far, and obviously not reaching any kind of an agreement. i mean, at any moment now, they still could reach some kind of plea agreement, correct? and number two, do you think that ultimately this thing will go to trial? >> well, certainly they could reach a plea agreement and i have been speaking to a lot of my former prosecutor friends and contacts in the justice department who of course are not speaking much about this, but i think that the consensus is that given the fact that we are going into the election year, brooke, it is unlikely that a prosecutor and especially one from the integrity section of the office will send the message that it is okay to sort of do something like this and not get any jail time. that is probably what the sticking point here. john edwards would not want to lose his legal license and he is a very good lawyer, and good trial lawyer, and he would not want that. >> and excuse me, sunny hostin, because you see the cameras pointed at one time means one thing, john edwards is pointed to the microphone, and here he is. let's listen. >> there's no question that i have done wrong. i take full responsibility for having done wrong. i will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that i have caused to others, but i did not break the law, and i never, ever thought i was breaking the law. thank you all very much. >> wow. short and sweet. less than 20 seconds, and a statement and not taking questions, but first to you, joe johns at the scene there outside of the courtroom in winston-salem, north carolina. is that kate, his oldest daughter over his shoulder? >> yes, it was kate. yes, that was kate. yeah, absolutely. they kept it short and sweet and surprisingly, there are still people here in the north carolina media are. it would have been a lot rougher in new york city or somewhere, but now i don't know if you can see, but there is a scrum following him as he walks off to the street. >> we see it. we are watching. we are watching, and he said, there is no question that i have done wrong, but he says i did not break the law. and i never ever thought that i had broken the law. >> absolutely, yeah. >> go ahead, joe. >> well, i wanted to say that while we are watching him go out, and one of the points that i really don't think that we were able to get in that is kind of important is that it is about bunny mellon in the last week or two that he paid her a visit and there were a lot of concerns about that, and a lot of heartburn, i think over at the justice department even that what is this guy doing to go to sit down to have a conversation or tea or whatever it was, and apparently just a friendly meeting, and not the discuss the case. we heard officially, but you know, people are asking questions about that, and that may be why the prosecution went the extra step to ask the judge to impose that condition to stay away from bunny mellon. >> and he can only stay in the lower 48 and he had to surrender the passport, and there goes to car and just goes to show that he is being followed by choppers and people, and the scrum after the courthouse, and because it happen sod quickly, you might have missed it, but let's listen once again to john edwards. >> there is no question that i have done wrong. i take full responsibility. for having done wrong and i will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that i have caused to others. but i did not break the law. and i never ever thought i was breaking the law. thank you all very much. in creamy peanut butter,ipd making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. 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