The Hill News

The odds are 11-1 the jury in the federal case in North Carolina trying John Edwards for campaign law violations will convict. There might be a holdout. That’s why I set odds at 11-1. Edwards has been portrayed as such a despicable human being â€" politician and husband â€" that the jury is likely to be unsympathetic to his legalistic defense.

But I also think that if there is a conviction, the odds are that there will be a reversal based on the trial judge's ruling yesterday. She kept out of the trial the testimony of a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission that in his opinion Edwards did NOT violate federal election laws by not declaring donations from admirers that went to shield his tawdry affair. The judge ruled that this testimony could not be heard by the jury because the witness might have based his testimony on facts the jury doesn’t have.

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