UPDATE 5/21/12 5:30 PM ET NO verdict today as JOHN EDWARDS jury engrossed in BUNNY HU$H MONEY evidencel.
After a bitter slugfest, the criminal conspiracy trial of JOHN EDWARDS is in the hands of a jury which will decide his fate.
In closing arguments for the Justice Department, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon once again wove jurors through the sordid labyrinth that exploded with THE ENQUIRER’s very first world exclusive.
Using floral metaphors, Higdon told the jury that the affair was the "seeds of destruction" for Edwards, noting that weeds eventually "choked his campaign."
Higdon also recapped the key issues that might lead them to decide to convict the former US Senator.
Once again the facts known only too well to ENQUIRER readers were reiterated point by point — how former Edwards loyalist Andrew Young hid the affair for months by claiming paternity of the love child, how late Dallas money man, Fred Baron, provided the initial rush of hush money until his death in October 2008 and how 102 year-old Listerine heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon was suckered to funnel money through Young for mistress Rielle Hunter's personal expenses and medical care.
"It was one thing to hide an affair. It was something altogether different to hide a pregnancy and a child," he told jurors in his closing argument.
Higdon also said Bunny’s desire for Edwards to be president was exceeded only by her "school girl" crush on Edwards himself.
Former trial lawyer Fred Baron was also a long-time Edwards pal who fervently thought a legal buddy in a top drawer position in Washington — be it VP or Attorney General — would be beneficial, prosecutors said.
"(Mellon) wanted John Edwards to be elected president, and she was willing to work around those pesky government restrictions to make it happen," US Attorney Higdon said regarding the federal laws limiting Presidential campaign contributions.
"Clearly, (they were) willing to do whatever it took."
In his closing statements, defense attorney Abbe Lowell told jurors that while John Edwards committed many sins he didn’t break the law in covering up his affair and love child.
"This is a case that should define the difference between someone committing a wrong and committing a crime … between committing sins and a felony," Lowell said.
Edwards faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all six charges.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating his fate tomorrow morning in Greensboro, North Carolina.
