Edwards's defense wants to call Scott Thomas and Robert Lenhard to testify about the complexities of federal campaign finance regulations and about their implications for the prosecution Edwards is facing for allegedly accepting illegal, off-the-books donations to his 2008 presidential campaign by participating in a scheme to direct about $925,000 in reimbursements from two of his wealthy supporters to his mistress and a child she and Edwards had.
Both Thomas and Lenhard will testify, according to summaries prepared by the defense (posted here), that if Edwards had asked them whether such gifts consituted campaign donations under federal election law, they "would have given the opinion that [the payments] did not fall within the scope of those laws."
In a motion seeking to keep both men off the witness stand, prosecutors call the testimony "utterly irrelevant" and improper under federal legal precedent.
Feds: John Edwards campaign finance experts 'irrelevant'
via politico.com
