Edwards Moves to Dismiss Case

The case against John Edwards is political, not criminal, and should be dismissed, lawyers for the onetime presidential candidate said yesterday in a hefty court filing. “While much can be said in questioning how Mr. Edwards conducted himself throughout this saga, the allegations… that he violated campaign finance laws should not be among them,” the lawyers write. “The distinction between a wrong and a crime is at the heart of this case.”

“This case is about politics,” the lawyers argue; the prosecutor was a Bush-appointed attorney general, and is running for Congress next year as a Republican, the Raleigh New & Observer notes. Edwards is accused of secretly getting contributions from wealthy supporters to hide Rielle Hunter’s pregnancy. The defense argues that those weren’t campaign donations, and that Edwards had “non-campaign-related, purely personal reasons” to hide Hunter that “would exist whether or not Mr. Edwards was a candidate.” (More Rielle Hunter stories.)