Ex-Senator John Edwards’s Campaign Trial Set for February

Former U.S. Senator John Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, will go on trial in February on charges of violating campaign finance laws to hide an extramarital affair.

The defense and prosecution agreed to start jury selection Feb. 6 and begin trial Feb. 13, according to documents filed yesterday in federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles must still must approve the timetable.

Edwards, John Kerry’s running mate in the 2004 presidential election, was the subject of a two-year investigation into whether he used more than $925,000 in contributions to conceal his relationship with filmmaker Rielle Hunter, with whom he fathered a child. He withdrew in January 2008 from the race for the presidential nomination.

Last month, Eagles rejected a bid to dismiss the case. Edwards had argued that the indictment failed to state an actual crime and that the grand jury proceedings were flawed. The issues are better dealt with by a jury at trial, the judge said.