January 2, 2008

Going into the Iowa Caucuses, a fear, weighing on the minds of many Democrats across America, is whether the Feds will seek the indictment of John Edwards.

This year, a number of Edwards' fundraisers/bundlers have been indicted, and there are concerns among Democrats that the Feds may be focusing on John Edwards and that his finances cannot survive federal scrutiny.

Among the indicted are attorneys Geoffrey Fieger, Vern Johnson, Tab Turner, and William S. Lerach.

Concerns around a possible Edwards indictment mostly center around the following problems with the Edwards campaign.

1. Michigan attorneys Geoffrey Fieger and Vern Johnson were indicted on grounds of allegedly paying employees of Fieger's law firm to act as straw donors to make $127,000 in illegal contributions to John Edwards for the purpose of avoiding contribution limits.  The 30-page indictment included charges of "conspiracy, making and causing conduit campaign contributions, causing false statements and obstruction of justice."  Why would two attorneys go to all that trouble to help John Edwards without first making sure Edwards would be supportive of the contributions?  The only one who benefited from the contributions was John Edwards.

2. Bundler Fred Baron, a prominent attorney and friend, has provided Edwards with the use of his private private plane, a Raytheon Hawker 800.  Does this in-kind donation exceed campaign finance limits?

3. William S. Lerach, who raised $80,000 from his family and law firm partners for John Edwards, recently pled guilty to conspiracy.  In May, Edwards issued a statement urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to weigh in with the Supreme Court on behalf of an effort by Lerach’s Enron investor clients.  Will this result in Edwards having  a belated legal nightmare?

4. Edwards bundler Scott Tyre, a Wisconsin lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, has been instrumental in getting Congress to act in favor of the oil industry.  Did Edwards get donations under false premises by claiming he was for alternative fuels?  What is expected in return for the donations?

5. Will the millions Edwards made off the Katrina victims' losses come under federal scrutiny?

6. When the sub prime market falls, will the big bucks Edwards continues to make off home foreclosures subject him to higher scrutiny in the investigation  and finger-pointing of the sub prime wrongdoing?

7. Are the offshore funds and profits from war Edwards is receiving a problem?'

8. Will Edwards' investments in war profiteer Halliburton's competitor Schlumberger result in greater scrutiny into which war profiteers are to get funding from future wars?  Will this election be a contest between competing war profiteers?

8. Will his use of a professional corporation to shelter at leasts $10 million in income from Medicare taxes result in IRS problems?

9. Will the FEC look into his convenient non-profit for poverty which raised $1.3 million, flew Edwards around on a self-promoting speaking tour and provided campaign workers for his campaign?  Why is it now defunct if it was ever legitimate?

10. Remember Checkers?  It was before our time.  However, Nixon was accused of misusing campaign funds.  Do the $30 million home Edwards got his wife or the $100,000+ funneled to Rielle Hunter, who is reportedly expecting his baby early this year, for low quality videos that were never used by his campaign, and the additional cost of re-locating Hunter close to Edwards' campaign headquarters constitute a misuse of  funds?

11. Will John Edwards' partially-successful attempt to rig the debates that was caught on video run him afoul of the FEC and the FCC?

12. Will an investigation into the sources of nearly $1 million in unregulated funds used to promote John Edwards in Iowa and New Hampshire result in legal problems for the campaign?

Democrats have been whispering their concerns about the possibility of an indictment for some time.  The Creative Youth News Team felt it was important that the backroom concerns be brought out into the light for everyone to examine.  The worst nightmare scenario for Democrats would be for Edwards to do well in the primaries and then to be indicted on February 6th or, worse, as the October, 2008 surprise. 

Copyright ©2008 by the Creative Youth News Team.  All rights reserved.