The most hated man in America, John Edwards — whose picture could illustrate a dictionary entry for depraved human scum — walked out of a North Carolina courthouse yesterday with his swagger intact and his hair in place.
He won’t die in prison. But if there is a God, Edwards’ conscience, if he has one, will nag at his soul for eternity.
A sun-baked jury yesterday declared the former Senator and all-around jerk not guilty of illegally taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2008 from aged campaign groupie Rachel “Bunny’’ Mellon.
The 101-year-old banking heiress, who’s said Edwards reminded her of a young John F. Kennedy — the old girl must have mistaken him for Robert Kennedy Jr. — was not the only dame seduced by Edwards’ slimy Southern charm, wandering hips, and ridiculously expensive haircuts.
EDWARDS GETS OFF – AND HINTS AT A COMEBACK
VOTE: WHO’S THE MOST HATED PERSON IN AMERICA?
Edwards was charged with violating campaign finance laws by using nearly $1 million from Mellon and others to hide his loony and knocked-up mistress, Rielle Hunter, from his dying wife.
But while jurors freed Edwards from the 2008 “Bunny Money’’ charge, they couldn’t agree if he was guilty of five other counts in a conspiracy allegedly masterminded by a man who thought with his privates, not his brain, to finance Rielle’s care, feeding and maternity shopping bonanzas.
Mostly, the money was allegedly used to fit a virtual ball gag over Hunter’s giant yap, keeping the mistress quiet and Edwards’ wife appeased as he waged a delusional campaign for the White House.
After the verdict, Edwards sounded like a kid who got away without doing his homework.
“I do not believe I did anything illegal,” Edwards said. “I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong.
“There is no one else responsible for my sins … I don’t have to go any further than the mirror. It’s me and me alone.”
Then — with tears in his eyes! — he had the temerity to talk of his baby with Hunter. The child whose paternity he once denied. And whom he was charged with paying big money to hide.
“My precious Quinn, who I love more than any of you could ever imagine, who I am so close to and so, so grateful for,’’ he said.
I’m losing my lunch.
He hounded his poor wife, Elizabeth, to the grave with the knowledge that the years they spent together were a lie.
He blathered about helping the poor, when he couldn’t help those near and dear. He thought he was omnipotent. Worse, that he was righteous.
Unless there’s a new trial — who knows?— he won’t be punished on this earth.
But one day soon, John Edwards will burn.