john edwards didn't testify.gure in this trial who actually took the stand was andrew young, who essentially served the bag man role. that's a very unusual situation where you have so many of the key flavors offstage. now, as for what the jury thinks about that, you know, there really is no way to know at this point, except that it's been eight days and there's no verdict. and every day that passes without a conviction is good for the defense. now, that could change if there is a conviction, but days passing, jury deadlocks are good for the defense. you can be sure that abbe lowell and company, the defense lawyer, are feeling better about today's developments than the prosecutors are, but this thing is not over. >> and real quick, jeff, does this fit into, this has gone shockingly long in terms of jury deliberation? or is it not surprising? >> no. i mean, this is certainly a long jury deliberation, but this is not unprecedented, even in north carolina. i was hearing about a less celebrated fraud case not too long

again, john edwards acquitted on one count, five counts mistrial. o to joe johns in greensboro to kind of reset the scene for us. joe, you watched those jurors day in and day out struggle with this. in the end, they could only come up with a verdict on one count. what happened here to the prosecution's case? >> reporter: tough case, tough law, tough facts, and politics probably played a role in it too. gloria, i just wanted to show you this. this is the verdict sheet that the judge always gives to the jury. they work off of this sheet as they go through the counts to try to determine the guilt or the innocence of the individual who's on trial. and as you can see, the way it's put here, no unanimous decision, and it goes all the way through. no unanimous decision on five of the counts. the only one that has an "x" here next to guilty or not guilty is count three. that is a count from 2008 involving alleged illegal contributions from rachel "bunny" mellon in virginia to john edwards. so the jury just didn't buy it, at the end of the day, as that seemed

>> the hard thing the jury had to decide was what was in john edwards' head, what was the intent? did he understand that taking this money, as the government said, was illegal? edwards has always said he didn't. one of the things the justice department has to consider when they decide to go for a retrial or not is, did we give it our best shot? is there something we have failed to do? everybody watching this trial didn't know. they put on their best case, so you have to ask yourself, having taken this good a shot, what's the reason to do it again? the only thing i was starting to say before edwards came out was i suppose one of the things the government has to consider is the flip side to the political question that you raised initially, and that is this is now a democratic administration, will it be criticized if it doesn't seek a retrial against a man who was a democratic candidate for president? but having said that, many of the critics of the original prosecution were republicans and conservatives who thought this was a misapplication of federal campaign finance law. so it's no

john edwards was too cute by an inch.ound it with the bunny money which is obviously okay. >> staying with money and politics is obviously just super pac transparency. obviously we have our opinions about public financing, about ach amending the constitution, about all these complex laws on the books, and i believe all merit significant debate, but while we await the expanded debate on money and politics, i'm still surprised at the audacity of both republican and democratic leadership to simply not concede. we're going to at least show you whose money it is. >> but i don't think any of that is going to happen unless we, the people, continue to put pressure on the politicians to make it happen, because it's not -- i mean, you know, it is sort of in their interest on a political level with a small p, but again, that's the way you impact change. one point i would make in the bigger scheme of things, pete's observation was really right on which was think about where we were when this case was initially brought forward and whe

the stakes for john edwards? >>arthur: life-or-death. really. because my understanding of what happened was the jury sent out a note that said we reached a verdict. so, i was giving the judge a hard time before, but, she may have been given this information by the jury itself. that all they said was we reached a verdict they come in and the first question a judge or clerk, depending on how the judge runs the courtroom, has the jury reached a unanimous verdict and then for the first time the judge hears, oh, no, we have a verdict on one thing but we don't know what we are doing on everything else, which, i will tell you, again, this just happened to me a couple of months ago, and the defendant would i was representing who was facing similar amounts of time in jail, prison, was the only time he lost his composure in two years and he said i don't care, take the verdict. i need to get this out of my life. take the verdict. take the verdict. of course, he her not guilty and was very happy about that. >>megyn: because he had you. >>arthur: the other w

john edwards. they will reup.ossibly question italy speak to a juror or two or ask what did we do wrong? what hole did we close? what dot did we connect and as sure as i am bald they will go back to the courtroom if a month or a couple of months and they will try again because this is such a defeat to them. they put everything, millions of dollars, the best prosecutors they have if that district, and they could not get one count of guilty. they will be re-tryied. >> one count. and i love you arthur but i disagree. why think they will double down. i think they will leave it alone. >>neil: we can all hang in there. there is the political fallout from all of this, too, john edwards' future what there is, many say there is nothing left to it, and is that really the case? g ] [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. ♪ then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ . for lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. when i got my medicare card, i realized i

some confusing legal developments in the john edwards trial.orrespondent lisa myers has been in north carolina for the duration of these proceedings. she joins us now. lisa, can you make sense of what has happened this afternoon? >> reporter: well, martin, i can tell you the latest. the judge has just announced that she is going to ask the jury to continue deliberations on the five counts on which they have been unable to reach unanimous verdict. they have not yet told us what their verdict is on the one count on which they have reached a conclusion. now, she said she is going to ask the jury to at least go in and keep talking for the afternoon. she didn't indicate whether she has asked them, will ask them to deliberate beyond that. she did say i want them to know, they are not prisoners and they have been conscientious. so i think there will be a limit to how much longer she asks them to go but for now she'll send them back to keep. one of the differentiations that the defense made between the two charges, the two counts involving money from h

or just john edwards' family?osecution's first witness today was able to speak to that and the interior decorator helped his racial friend funnel hundreds of thousands to andrew young claiming young never told them of the affair or the coverup until just hours before news appeared in the press, and the prosecution asked huffman how she reacted when she found out about the affair. and huffman reasonablied "she thought he should pay for your girlfriend yourself." trace? >>trace: thank you, jonathan, outside the courthouse and now our legal panel, former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. jeffrey, the question in this, is it fair game as he was talking for the prosecution to bring up the affair again and again to prosecute john edwards? >>guest: absolutely. in a murder case the defendant doesn't want the prosecutor to show you the gory pictures of the scene but that is part of the prosecution case and no matter how much the defense wants to stipulate and say, we agree, we don't need to have the testimony, the

he is a developer, former john edwards supporter, friend, and former john edwards aide andrew young. he told the court that he warned then senator president obama's campaign back in date -- 2008 about the affair and told an obama staffer "you have seen the fab lloyd reports and usually they get these wrong but in this case i don't think they did." >> of court, the prosecution says john edwards knew he was using campaign money to hide his affair from voters and his dying wife and john edwards' lawyers say he did not know of the cash and his aide, andrew young, spent the money on his dream home. if convicted john edwards faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. and now, down to north carolina. what is the prosecution doing to try to prove john edwards did, indeed, know about the cash? >>jonathan: they have the former speech writer who helped john edwards come up with this draft of how he was going to admit his affair to the american public, she, just before a break, was describing how he apologized to staff. at that point, john edwards was visibly upset and during the

one of the counts against john edwards. that was the count that hemmingedly accepted illegal campaign contributions in 2008 from rachel bunny melon. they announced they could not reach a verdict on the other five counts. realizing they had not cop up with a unanimous verdict, the judge sent them back in the jury room w while she met with the lawyers. the prosecution wanted the jury to continue deliberating. the defense wanted the judge to declare a mistrial. the judge instructed jurors to go back and continue their deliberations and try to come up with the unanimous verdict on the other count. 45 minutes later, juror sent a judge a note saying after nine days of deliberations they were confident in their conclusions saying "we do not believe a different verdict will be reached." the judge declared a mistrial on the other five counts. the judge spoke to the jury briefly before dismissing jurors saying, "i know you're probably frustrated but you worked hard. you have done your job and you can hold your head up." back to you.

nonetheless, back to john edwards. and just a little more of his life. we heard a lot about his aspirations. his ambitions. his ego. okay. what we have -- let me put you on hold, david. john, down three. right now, count three. what do we have? we have a unanimous vote on count three only but i do not know what that decision is. count three is that he accepted and received illegal campaign contributions in 2008 from rachel bunny mellon. the very wealthy been factor, a woman who believed in his political career and is at the heart of this -- john, we're being told right now. the judge has sent them back into the jury room. what does this mean? >> i've never heard of this. it appears the jury may have told the judge they reached a verdict. i.e., a verdict on one count and didn't think to mention to him they hadn't reached a verdict on the other five counts, it sounds like from what i'm seeing here in the studio. >> hang on. gabe gutierrez is standing by. ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the frab particular nature of this. this is all very unusual. gab

appear. >> kimberly: what are your take-away, remarks, tenor and tone of what the future holds for john edwards? >> andrea: this is astounding. this is the first time we heard from edwards, it will be a year this summer. 2008 is when the affair broke. it's been a lot of time. we have heard from elizabeth edwards, we heard from hunter in a magazine. we haven't heard from him. this was his apology to the nation. but he at the crux of it, he did a very, very bad thing, but it wasn't an illegal thing. apology to the nation. i think it struck the right tone. he is done in politics, i'm not sure it can repair or decenter people. >> brian: get a talk show. >> bob: because he is a good lawyer is the reason he thought he'd beat this. he knew the laws were impossible the way they're written to prosecute somebody. that's why he was confident throughout the trial. >> eric: quick observation. when o.j. simpson was acquited he came out saying i'm going to spend the rest of my life looking for nicole's killer and it went on the side. john edwards comes to podium and says i'm going to work for kids going forwa

we're still committed to seeing this through. >>> an hour of confusing legal developments in the john edwardsolitical analyst john alta and republican strategist ron christie. the verdict today reached a verdict on count 3. we don't know what the verdict is. they told the judge, and the judge, somewhat surprised, said, actually, you have to give verdicts on all six, and they now are continuing deliberations. we're expecting deliberations to continue to about 4:45. do you think this case, given its complexity, should have been brought in the first place? >> no. the jury today is as confused as the prosecution has been. there was no violation of campaign finance laws here, martin, and there are many independent lawyers who don't have any connection to this case on both sides of the aisle politically will testify in the court of public opinion to that fact. this was an extraordinarily weak case. john edwards is a skunk, but he's an innocent skunk when it comes to the particular laws at issue here. not just -- >> not a felonious skunk. >> not just for the reasons that lisa meyer mentioned, that t

we did not get john edwards. or john edwards' daughter. randy you have said he walks. >>randy: didn't need to. didn't need to. didn't need to. you don't fix what ain't broke. the burden rests with the government. john edwards is presumed innocent. he could have sat there reading the "shep" page and does not have to do anything and the government cannot and will not and will never be able to prove that "the" purpose of the money was campaign contributions designed to save the campaign so he could still be president. if a dollar of that money according to this statute went for personal purpose for a gift, under the statute, john edwards must be acquitted. >>arthur: i don't thing they did it for this reason but it was a classy move they did not call the daughter. don't do that. >>shepard: classy they didn't call the daughter. >>arthur: rielle hunter is the wild card or a nut job. they knew they could not control her on the stand and putting him on the stand, the risk wasn't worth the reward. she a trained professional. he is used it control the tempo and the conversation.

you have been a great reporter hampton, for the good of john edwards, i hope i don't see you for awhile. we could be back on this case in a matter of days. savanna guthrie has to go work to work for nbc. more on the edward's trial coming up, we have the politics on this trial. what it means for the man that came so close to 30 years in prison or a couple years ago to being president of the united states and a few years before that being the president of the united states. he could have been a contender, this is "hardball," place for "politicsnation" opinion people measure commitment by what's getting done. i'm mike utsler, and it's my job to make sure we keep making progress in the gulf. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. another fourteen billion dollars has been spent on response and cleanup. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to the gulf of mexico research initiative... to support ten years of independent scientific research on the environment. results will continue to be shared with the public. and w

>>> john edwards' trial. the jury rush -- returns a verdict on one of only six charges. >> what happens next. >> hi, everybody. i'm mary bubala. >> i'm kai jackson. here's what people are talking about. >> we have breaking news in the john edwards trial. a short time ago, the jury tells the judge they have consensus on only one charge, and they're dead-locked on the remaining five. manuel gallegus reports for wjz. the judge sternly tells the jury to keep trying. >> reporter: john edwards must wait a little longer to find out his fate. jurors in his campaign finance trial said they were deadlocked on five of the six counts against him. it was just after 2:00 p.m. when the jury sent word they had reached a verdict. but when the court convened, the jury said they had reached a unanimous decision only on count 3. that involves edwards receiving campaign funds illegally from heiress bunny millen. she had given him more than $700,000 during his 2008 presidential campaign. prosecutor says he used that money to hide

she did not fade into the wood work like other aides, and they were afraid she would overshadow john edwards. and even after elizabeth edwards grew suspicious and demanded her husband fire rielle hunter she remained prominent in the campaign. former aide john davis recalled an awkward moment he want into hunter in a hotel elevator and she testified she said she and senator john edwards were very much in love and i told her that i did not care about this and i was focused on the campaign and he said the next day the boss called him to the room to deny anything was going on. >>shepard: that bit of testimony. and then testimony from another former john edwards' staffer. tell us about that testimony. >>reporter: he is a former staffer who ordinarily had a master key to get into john edwards' hotel room so he could prepare things, conduct sweeps but he recalled his surprise in florida when he tried the door, it was dead bolted from the inside, and no one answering the door, and, finally, a hand from inside slipped him a note instructed him to contact fellow campaign staffer andrew young and the p

calling john edwards daughter, kate, his mistress rielle hunter or even john edwards himself to the stand. >>> plus to protect and serve or kill. mississippi police officer now searching for a murder suspect they believe is dressed as one of their own. we're going to talk to the california democratic congresswoman jackie spear coming up next. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain. two pills can last all day. ♪ two pills can last all day. do you guys ride? well... no. sometimes, yeah. yes. well, if you know anybody else who also rides, send them here -- we got great coverage. it's not like bikers

and a couple notes bunny mellon wrote to john edwards. "from now on all hair cuts that are necessary and important for the campaign please send the bills to me," in care of the estate lawyer, a way to help our friend without government restrictions. those notes reflect what bunny mellon was thinking at time that she sent the money. and the judge's instructions were that the donor's intent, when she gave the money is something they must consider in determining whether these are, in fact, campaign contributions that must be reported. >>jonathan: the jury's request included a transcript of a voice mail john edwards left andrew young describing plans for a 2008 visit with bunny mellon, and gentleman said we will break out into a private session for a couple of hours and do our work including the work about you and making sure you are protected and included. >>shepard: what are the legal experts telling you of the request that the jury made today? >>jonathan: well, at face value the prosecution would argue that the evidence the jury has asked

john edwards faces six criminal charges. if he's convicted on all six, he could get up to 30 years in prison and a heavy fine. it's the prison sentence. this was a man who was potentially going to be president now facing a very lengthy, possibly life-ending prison sentence. this couldn't be higher stakes for john edwards, could it? >> couldn't be higher stakes unless of course the death penalty were involved which of course it's not involved in this case. the question is did he violate the law. and that is a significant question. it's interesting the judge didn't think it was a complicated issue of law although the defense argues with that and argued that it would be reversible for the expert not to be able to get all of the testimony about the law and that the fec did not find it was a campaign contribution. and in fact there are other cases in which they also found that a payment to a mistress was not a campaign contribution. so it's going to be interesting. he does have a lot at stake. >> bottom line, this is a really unu

>>shepard: continuing coverage in the trial of john edwards. as we report add couple of aides took the stand to detail their concerns over his mistress. one aid said she told that aide "we are madly if love." john edwards camp denies using more than a million to hide the affair from the voters. arthur? >>arthur: i don't know what the plea offer to john edwards but my guess it wassing in substantial and no one wants to go to jail and nothing wants to be humiliated. what this guy has done to his family is horrific. the testimony yesterday by aide was that on the tarmac, in north carolina, when mrs. edwards knew the affair was going objection she lost it, to such a degree, screaming at her husband, in front of others, you don't see me, you don't see me anymore, and she takes off her shirt and takes off her bra and stands there in front of her husband showing what a woman she still is in front of other aides and as horrific as this is, as the testimony comes out his daughter, who is not courtroom, runs now tears. i don't care if it is a two minute

the only count was reached was count three, that specific charge that john edwards accepted and received illegal campaign contributions in 2008 from rachel mellon. edwards is accused of masterminding a plan to use money from mellon and another wealthy donor to hide his pregnant mistress as he ran for president. >> that mistress of course, rielle hunter. about 2:45 this afternoon the judge sent the jury back into the deliberation room. analysts say the jury could be dead locked on the other five charges. witnesses inside the courtroom today say edwards happy, appeared to be smiling at his family. the defense team has asked the judge to declare a mistrial so, once again, back to square one. let's go to nbc news for this special report. >> this is an nbc news special report. here is savannah guthrie. >> we are coming on to report some big developments that the corruption trial of former presidential democratic candidate john edwards -- what it all means is less than clear at this hour. the jurors in greensboro, north carolina, told the judge this afternoon they've reached a verdict on one a

there is now breaking news in the john edwards trial.ar that court officials just sent all of the reporters out of the room. you are looking, live, outside the courthouse in north carolina. we will get an update on the breaking news with the john edwards trial, day six of jury deliberation. next. we don't have a word for retirement. in the latino community the word that we use is jubilation. as you're getting older, you should be able to do the things that you love. but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. listen to what mvp justin verlander thinks about it. i would say the source of most of my muscl

if convicted john edwards could spend 30 years in prison. and now from the courthouse in north carolina this afternoon. jonathan there is this talk of whether the mistress, rielle hunter will take the stand. >>jonathan: she is not going for do it for the recent and it is in doubt whether she will do it for the defense. testimony suggested even john edwards' closest associate didn't trust her and believed she was a loose cannon and were always afraid of what she might say publicly. one legal scholar and former u.s. attorney believes it may have been the same for the prosecution. listen. >> the prosecution wanted to end with a bang. they probably thought she was too dangerous and they made a decision not to put her on the stand: >>jonathan: instead the prosecution tried to leave the jury with the idea he still had ambitions if high office even as the presidential hopes and marriage were crumbling and today the senior economic policy advisor, former one, he testified that "we talk about a long term goal of mr. ed wards which was to be a supreme

>> cate edwards seemed like in the realm of possibility, rielle hunter and john edwards were both much bigger gambles. edwards in particularly would have really transformed the case into a one-witness case. it would have risen and fallen on his credibility. and the defense made the calculation they would rather focus on the weakness in the prosecution's case, specifically andrew young, their star witness. they want to argue he's the one with the credibility problems, who can't be believed, who admitting lying and taking most of this cover up money. but i have to believe that the defense lawyers tonight are sweating it a little bit. here they are about to send this case to a jury, case they could have gotten a plea agreement on, but they turned down, took the gamble, hoping it would get dismissed before indictment, dismissed before the judge before trial, that didn't happen. now it's going to a jury, anything can happen. >> a veteran trial lawyer at the center of this, of course, decided to go to trial in the end. thanks as always. >>> there are new medical reports out tonight that seem

the question really comes down to john edwards' intent. to report those hundreds of thousands of dollars as campaign contributions, was that a criminal act? that's what this case is really about. edwards' defense is, i thought this money was to be used for protecting my family, protecting my wife from the truth, deceiving my wife. the prosecution is saying, no, that money was to preserve and sustain the presidential campaign. so edwards' intent about what that money was for is really what this case is about. >> now, let me quick check with the control room. bear with me, everybody. is our joe johns ready yet? i see him in one of the monitors because i saw him running out of the courtroom. is he ready yet? okay. so we'll continue. i know he's miking up -- hold on? okay. i'm going to hold on and wait for joe johns to bring this to us. tell me when he is ready so we can get this verdict right away. joe johns just ran to the camera coming out of the courtroom. joe, what do you know? >> reporter: count three only. they reached a verdict on count

is the jury going to convict john edwards?> i think they very well may, yes. >> we'll see what happens. thanks so much for being with us this evening. up next, can a man already in custody hold the keys to finding lauren spearer? >>> it has been almost a a year since 20-year-old indiana university student lauren spierer vanished. cops are investigating a possible connection to a murderer already in prison. bo deadle is working for the spierer family. >> why do police in bloomington think there might be a connection between this guy who is a serial killer on the lauren spierer disappearance? >> this man is involved with three murders as it stands now and still ongoing. the location where he lives is two hours from bloomington and we have a very good rapport with the bloomington police department and we have contact, we made some contact with them and the thing is that they are looking at everything. >> judge jeanine: why do they think this guy is connected? >> well, anybody can be connected with this case. right now any one and

this is great news for john edwards. john edwards has got to be thrilled.eople may hear hung jury, could this mean a retrial, yes, it might. it could. the bottom line is one not guilty count and five hung is a huge win for john edwards. now the question is going to be are the prosecutors really going to be able to justify spending this kind of money to bring this kind of case again, the kind of case that many would argue never should have been brought in the first place. >> chris cuomo, 2020 anchor, on this one count it was related to a $200,000 check he received from bunny mellon in 2008, just a week before he suspended his presidential campaign. that was enough for the jury to say, no, it was not related to the campaign primarily. >> arguably the weakest count from the beginning, small amount of money. bunny mel on was more difficult to reconcile because the money went through a middle person. fred baron was the better side of the prosecution case. the problem with the trial from the beginning for the prosecution was these were moral crimes on john edward

why didn't john edwards get the money. john edwards is saying this money was for me, but bunny mellon's people are saying it was gore him for personal use and a gift, you talk about reasonable doubt, it's all over the case. >> but the witnesses are saying don't believe anything, look at it what it is. a pregnant mistress, he is trying to funnel money there. >>randy: you can use the money to cover up the affair from elizabeth edwards but not have the voters and if it is not a campaign contribution you never get to that point. >> that is what he used it for. rain it was a gift to keep the affair a secret. >>shepard: whatever he decided to do with it is what matters or what the intention of dough increase is what matters? >> what is in john edwards' mind? his intent when he got money. and her intent. clearly, that is a fine line and that is what is heart. but it is going to probably end up going, he used it to further his campaign and that is where he will get in trouble. >>randy: it is up to the government to prove the case