Retrial Unlikely For John Edwards [VIDEO]

A federal law enforcement official says it's unlikely that federal prosecutors will retry John Edwards on campaign finance fraud charges.

Jurors acquitted Edwards on one of the charges he faced and deadlocked on the others. Edwards said outside court that he'd done nothing illegal, but did do an "awful lot that was wrong."

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The former Democratic presidential candidate had been accused of using donor money to hide his pregnant mistress during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Legal observers see the case as a  rejection of the Justice Department's boldest attempt to make an example of someone in the name of enforcing campaign finance laws.

Thursday's verdict of not guilty on one count and a mistrial on five others bore out criticism from the earliest stages of the case that it was a reach, that prosecutors went after the ex-U.S. senator without the kind of evidence that justified the charges.

Edwards faced six felony charges involving nearly $1 million provided by two wealthy political donors that was used to help hide the Democrat's mistress, Rielle Hunter, as he sought the White House in 2008.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)