the first defense witness laura haggard ran the finance campaign in 2008. she testified the secret money still has not been reported because even after he was charged, auditors said it didn't need to be, as for whether edwards will testify, legal expert dan abrams said there's no upside. >> i don't think there's a chance he will take the stand. i think it is too rest -- risky to put him on the stand. >> reporter: part of the strategy will be to discredit the star wetness. andrew young admitted to heeding the affair. another question is whether andrew's -- edwards' daughter might take the stand and testifying on her father's behalf could help humanize him for the jury. >>> next woke a public hearing on that secret service prostitution scandal. it will take's on may 23rd. the secret service director will testify. the incident involving agents happened about a month ago in advance of the president's trip to the summit of americas and involved roughly 20 alleged prostitutes. so far nine secret service members have been let go. >> details on a wildfire that has

>> reporter: yeah in fact on the stand was laura haggard, who is a former cfo for the edwards campaign. she started talking about all the money that was going into the funds that were helping to keep edwards' mistress hidden. she at the time had said that it was not considered a campaign contribution. the prosecution objected to this and so now they have taken a break and the judge is going to decide whether this testimony can be presented to the jury or whether this is something that needs to be left up to the jury. this opinion that the money involved was not a campaign contribution. these witnesses are really trying to shift the focus from the morality of the affair to the legality of the cover-up that followed. we got a hint of this strategy on friday when defense lawyer abby loul lowell unsuccessfully that the case should be dismissed. lowell said quote, no one is going to deny that mr. edwards lied and lied and lied and lied. then the government is going to say, see, he lied and i i'll say, yes, he lied. >> they have to as part of the defense embrace the lie in front of this jury

of laura haggard or another s.e.c. commissioner who will be here to testify or is that something that will be up to the jury? the judge is going to have a hearing probably a two-hour-long hearing on that today, but so far that's what we've heard. then we went to harrison hickman. he's on the stand as we broke for lunch. harrison hickman is a pollster, a political consultant for many years. he's done six presidential campaigns, 20 senatorial campaigns, very experienced. he's a good old boy from north carolina. this jury really likes him. he was asked about when he first met john edwards and he said 1997, and we had a lot in common. we're about the same edge. we both come from small towns, and we joke about that. he said that john edwards is from robbins and he said in robbins the welcome and good-bye sign are all on one sign, and i said, sure, my town was so small we had drivers ed and sex ed in the same car. so it's very light hearted so far with harrison hickman, and the jury does like him. they were starting to take

the first witness for the defense was laura haggard, a former chief financial officer who was in chargecampaign got its money and where the money went. haggard said she did not believe hundreds of thousands of dollars from edwards benefactors that was used by his mistress was a campaign contribution. therefore it didn't have to be disclosed to the sec. haggard's testimony was also intended to help edwards out of the sixth and final count of his indictment charging that he caused false statements to be filed in the sec reports. haggard took full responsibility for the reports and said edwards never had anything to do with thome. >> a big issue here is whether john edwards had criminal intent. if the chief financial officer did not view these as campaign contributions, a clear inference is that john edwards would have no reason to either. that's a big emphasis for the defense. >> reporter: also on the stand was harris hickman. he said he talked to fred barron, the late trial lawyer who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars helping others, hickman said barron was persnickety about whethe

laura haggard, former chief officer in the campaign in 2008 testified she never considered the moneyards' consultant testified he had spoken to one of the wealthy benefactors who gave edwards money and insisted it was a gift and not a campaign contribution and that is what the case hinges on. >>> a security adviser, newark liberty international airport is accused of being an illegal immigrant who stole the identity of a man killed 20 years ago. 54-year-old bimbo oual was using the identity of a man jerry thomas and was supervising more than 30 private security guards at the airport and had access to all sorts of secured areas. it's not clear how he passed numerous background checks with the new jersey state police and border patrol. >>> a wildfire burning out of control outside ft. collins, colorado. 60 firefighters working through the night staying on the scene to guard nearby homes. officials say they aren't in immediate danger. 911 calls went out to residents warning they may have to get out. >>> put down your coffee and look at this, a massive sink hole in florida, growing figure

now you're left with a couple of other witnesses like laura haggard, for example, chairperson, at leastally of the campaign and what she did was she said, you know what? mr. edwards had nothing to do with what we did. he wasn't involved in any disclosures. he didn't know anything at all in terms of what we were doing. you know what, jenna? the buck stops with him. this is person united states senator. completely familiar with federal law. ran for vice president, familiar with federal law. was running for president. he should have known and they put on jim walsh the private investigator with all the flow charts with $750,000 not going to the campaign. but from the prosecution's perspective, of course it wasn't going to the campaign. because they were hiding it. jenna: if the defense is in so much trouble why wouldn't they put john edwards on the stand? >> they couldn't put john edwards on the stand. he has some, he has so many problems with his credibility. he has so many problems with his likeability. nobody likes john edwards. what he did was despicable. jenna: do you think joey is rig

laura haggard, former cfo for the campaign testified she never considered the money to be a campaignar-old fisherman from panama who survived 28 days drifting at sea is suing princess cruise lines. adrian vasquez says one of the company's ships could have stopped and rescued him and his two companions but the ship just kept going. listen to two passengers who were on the ship last month and they spotted vasquez desperately signaling for help. >> you could see him doing this? with this shirt over and over and over. >> while we were on the ship, the feeling of powerlessness, because we would have liked to somehow gone over there and rescued them. >> princess cruises calls the incident a case of unfortunate miscommunication. vazqu vazquez's two fishing companions who were snoignaling with him a the time and seen from the ship did not survive. >>> the end is near for ron paul's presidential bid. he's not officially suspending his campaign for the white house but the texas congressman won't be spending any more money on it, trying instead to compete in the remaining primary contest he pla

laura haggard, still in charge of compliance for edwards' campaign, said even now she is not reporting the almost $1 million provided to cover up the affair. she said, i did not believe them to be contributions. and she told the jury, the federal election commission also has not deemed them to be contributions. the justice department, however, says this money constitutes illegal campaign contributions to edwards, which he denies. the defense tried to call former s.e.c. chairman scott thomas to give his opinion that this was not a contribution, and that edwards should not have been expected to think it was. but in a blow to the defense, the judge blocked most of his testimony, saying jurors don't need an expert to evaluate this. >> i think that an anchor to the defense was to be able to have people who are beyond reproach come in and tell this jury that what john edwards did was not a crime. >> because the judge has severely limited that key testimony for the defense, some analysts believe it puts even more pressure on john edwards to testify. perhaps his highly sympathetic daughter wil

they called laura hag arrested -- haggard, the former cfo for edwards' presidential campaign in 2008, she discussed a federal election commission, fec, audit of the campaign which determined there were no excessive contributions and did not require reporting the donations supporting edwards' mistress and child. to underscore the personal nature of some of the expenditures, defense lawyer abby lowell asked haggard whether the campaign would have to file with the fec for any expenses covering an ob/gyn appointment for rielle hunter or her child, haggard said that would be a personal use, we are not allowed to pay for personal expense, lowell followed up, if something is not a contribution, are there limits on what that person can spend, haggard replied no, there are no limits, lowell asked if something not a contribution, does it have to be on an fec report, haggard's reply, no. martha: very interesting. jonathan, thank you very much. it's going to be a big day in that courtroom. we'll get back to it as news breaks out of there. >>> in the meantime, we have a picture of rielle hunter, w

former edwards lawyer, wade smith, as well as a former campaign finance officer, laura hag arrested, all of them expect -- haggardall of them expected to focus on the legality of the coverup, rather than dwelling on all of the moral issues and all of the hurt that the affair caused john edwards' cancer-stricken wife elizabeth. bill: we move into phase two. thank you jonathan. here is what's on the line for john edwards. if convicted on all six counts against him he could theoretically face up to 30 years in prison. attorneys tell us any court would sentence him concurrently which means he would get five years max and hefty fines as well. we'll keep you updated. martha: well, new allegations this morning that president obama is trying to divide the country with his support of gay marriage. a top republican says that the white house is using smoke and mirrors to distract voters from the real issue of the election which he believes is the economy. here's john cornyn. >> president obama brought this issue up because he wants to -- he can't run on his record. let's put it that way. and so he's trying to raise divisive