I never said that it does. At least I never meant to say that. I understand there are some very complicated circumstances where someone may plead guilty because the penalties of fighting and losing seem so staggeringly high. But at the same time, I'd say that's a rare scenario. And it's not like we can figure out how many innocent people plead guilty just by asking them "did you really do it?" because guilty people are still inclined to say "I never did it, but i had to plead guilty for X reasons." But the main point is I never denied that it could happen.
My point was that the judge can reject a plea deal if the judge thought that there was no evidence of a crime. The judges opinion in this case seems to have a much more real world consequence than this ex-FEC official.
The many others? A quick google search can answer that. Are you of the impression that no serious people think that it's illegal?
Legal Experts: Campaign Finance Violations Are Crimes | Time
Again, I'm not saying that I know it's definitely one thing or another. I'm not an expert and won't pretend to be (others on this forum should take note
) but the idea that this is completely settled and that Cohen just plead guilty to two counts that weren't crimes and that the judge just let him plead guilty to something that isn't a crime is just silliness. By everything I've seen the main argument seems to be "edwards wasn't found guilty therefor it's not a crime! Just drop it" when in reality that's like saying "If my ex wife is found dead and you find her blood in my car, and my gloves at her house covered in blood, etc then I won't be found guilty because OJ wasn't!" It's just not how the law works. Each case is different. People want to ignore that to pretend that everything is very simple. It's just not. They aren't the same. And apparently, numerous prosecutors and a judge allowed the Edwards case to go forward, even though he wasn't found guilty. If it was just an obvious fact that payoffs aren't campaign violations then it wouldn't have even gone forward.