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Defense rests in Edwards case

Former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, left, arrives with his daughter Cate at the federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C., April 24. Lawyers for former Edwards rested their case Wednesday, without calling Edwards or former mistress Rielle Hunter to testify. UPI/Nell Redmond
Former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, left, arrives with his daughter Cate at the federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C., April 24. Lawyers for former Edwards rested their case Wednesday, without calling Edwards or former mistress Rielle Hunter to testify. UPI/Nell Redmond | License Photo

GREENSBORO, N.C., May 16 (UPI) -- Lawyers for former U.S. Sen. John Edwards rested their case Wednesday, without calling Edwards or former mistress Rielle Hunter to testify.

It was a subdued end to the defense of Edwards, whose trial on six felony counts of accepting about $1 million in illegal and unreported campaign contributions will proceed with the prosecution's calling of rebuttal witnesses and closing arguments, MSNBC reported Wednesday.

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Late Tuesday, defense lawyers informed U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles they might call the principal players in the trial, Edwards, Hunter and Edwards' daughter Cate Edwards Upham, to testify. Instead, the final testimony was from Jim Walsh, a former FBI agent hired by the defense, the cable news channel said.

Walsh testified Tuesday Fred Baron, finance director for Edwards' presidential campaign, provided Hunter monthly payments totaling $74,000 in the second half of 2008, after the campaign had ended, and some of it after Edwards publicly admitted his affair with Hunter.

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