1||Following a two-year investigation, a federal grand jury on Friday indicted John Edwards on six criminal counts. The charges include: conspiracy to violate federal campaign finance laws, accepting and receiving illegal campaign contributions and trying to conceal those donations from the FEC.
TPM takes a look back at the two-time presidential hopeful’s rise and fall.||Dennis Van Tine/ABACAUSA.COM/Newscom&&
2||Edwards won his first senate bid in 1998 in North Carolina, defeating incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth. Edwards spent $8.3 million on the campaign, much of it his own money, the New York Times reports.||o81/o81/ZUMA Press/Newscom&&
3||||PATRICK SCHNEIDER KRT/Newscom&&
4||During the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry tapped Edwards to be his running mate. Kerry and Edwards work the crowd after Kerry’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.||Mark Avery/ZUMA Press/Newscom&&
5||Edwards and Kerry in 2004 at Kerry’s farmhouse outside Pittsburgh.||ARCHIE CARPENTER/UPI/Newscom&&
6|| ||Mark Avery/ZUMA Press/Newscom&&
7|| Edwards in 2007 announces his intention, if elected president, to launch an initiative to reduce global poverty and educate poor children worldwide.||Chris Fitzgerald/CandidatePhoto/Chris Fitzgerald/CandidatePhotos/Newscom&&
8||Edwards in 2007 on the campaign trail in Manchester, New Hampshire.||Marlene Karas-PHOTOlink.net./Newscom&&
9||Edwards shows off his book, “Ending Poverty in America,” which he also edited.||Chris Fitzgerald/Chris Fitzgerald/CandidatePhotos/Newscom&&
10||January 19, 2008: Edwards at the Carpenters Hall in St. Louis. He withdrew his presidential bid later that month.||MARK COWAN/UPI/Newscom&&
11||Edwards speaks at a house party in Salem, New Hampshire. The event was designed for voters to meet him up close and personal.||Chris Fitzgerald/CandidatePhoto/Chris Fitzgerald/CandidatePhotos/Newscom&&
12||Then-Democratic candidates for president Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Edwards participate in a debate in Las Vegas on January 15, 2008.||DANIEL GLUSKOTER/UPI/Newscom&&
13||Edwards in 2007 with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Jack, on a campaign stop at Manchester, New Hampshire City hall. Elizabeth Edwards died December 7, 2010 after a battle with breast cancer.||Marlene Karas-PHOTOlink.net/Newscom&&
14||January 3, 2008: John and Elizabeth Edwards at a caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa.||BRIAN KERSEY/UPI/Newscom&&
15||The Edwards family at their home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.||Splash News/Newscom&&
16||After dropping out of the 2008 presidential race, Edwards endorsed Obama. “There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America — not two — and that man is Barack Obama,” Edwards said.||LANCE WYNN/Rapport Press/Newscom&&
17||August 6, 2009: Rielle Hunter, Edwards’ former mistress, leaves the federal courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina.||SHAWN ROCCO/MCT/Newscom&&
18|| December 11, 2010: Edwards with his children, Emma Claire and Jack, after Elizabeth Edwards’ funeral.||COREY LOWENSTEIN/MCT/Newscom&&
19||Edwards and his daughter, Cate, on Friday leave the federal building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after his indictment.||CHUCK LIDDY/MCT/Newscom&&
20||Edwards on Friday talks to the press, denying he broke the law.||Edwards Family/Zuma Press/Newscom&&
