hung jury is sort of appropriate resolution of this case because you wouldn t want to see john edwards given how he lived his life walking out of there completely vindicated, but this was not a person who deserved to be in prison for this set of activities. i thought his lawyer, abbey lowell, did a terrific job, had it just right when he said john edwards committed sins but not crimes and we don t put people in prison for sins in this country. after the verdict in his remarks john edwards went on to say there s no one else responsible. let me just say it, it s clearly me. i m going to play a little bit of that and we ll talk on the other side. and if i want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins, honestly, i don t have to go any further than the mirror. it s me. it is me, and me alone. what did you think of that press conference afterwards? it sounded to me like there was just such the weight of a guilty conscience and he just wanted to sort of ti
john edwards is humiliated, he is discredited. he is appropriately out of american politics. but i don t see any reason why this case should go forward. jurors deliberated the case for nine days. outside the courthouse, edwards was happy, but contrite. 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. cnn s joe johns has been covering the trial. and he is live in greensboro, north carolina. i ve got to tell you, i was watching you yesterday as you re running in and out of the courthouse bringing in all of those little nuggets of details that we re sprinkling through. now what happens? a lot of people say there will not be a retrial. that s for sure. and it s anybody s guess, you know. the government didn t really hint at what they plan to do. it is their right to bring the case if they want to. just wanted to show you the greensboro, n
here s what john edwards had to say after the trial. 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 ever doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. the federal government still has the option of a retrial, that doesn t seem very likely at this point. joining me to talk about all of that, senior legal analyst jeff toobin and david peril managing ed tord of radaronline.com and former editor-in-chief of the national enquirer which first broke the john edwards pregnancy scandal. jeff, are you surprised by this verdict? not at all. this was a weak, weak case, but john edwards was a deeply unappealing person to the jury, so you can see how the jury was pushed in different directions and i think in a way, a mostly hung jury is sort of appropriate resolution of this case because you wouldn t want to see john edwards given how he lived his life walking out of ther
seriously. the national spelling bee champ wins with the word most of us have likely never used, maybe not even ever heard of. the answer to that is probably no, right? these kids are really bright nowadays. nothing surprises me anymore. every year they get smarter and smarter. good morning, everybody, welcome to early start. we re really happy to have you here this morning. we are bringing you the news from a to z 5:00 a.m. here in the east. let s get started. up first, john edwards likely off the legal hook for good after a jury acquitted him of one count of campaign finance fraud and was hopelessly deadlocked on five other counts. the judge declaring a mistrial on those charges. and many legal experts don t expect prosecutors to retry the former presidential candidate who was accused of misusing campaign contributions to hide an extramarital affair during the 2008 election. here is our jeffrey toobin. i don t see any rationale for going forward with this case. jo