John Edwards' lawyer categorically denied any wrongdoing by the disgraced politician yesterday amidst reports that the Justice Department was preparing an indictment.

The Justice Department is reportedly on the verge of charging Edwards with violating campaign finance laws by using off the books donations to pay off a woman with whom he was having an affair.

Edwards appears to be girding himself to fight the charges. A former adviser told the New York Times that Edwards, a former trial lawyer, is a guy who loves to get in front of juries. Edwards' lawyer Gregory Craig issued a statement acknowledging that Edwards has done wrong in his life and he knows it better than anyone -- a reference to Edwards' affair -- before maintaining Edwards' innocence.

The government's theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law, Craig wrote. It is novel and untested. There is no civil or criminal precedent for such a prosecution.

Once considered a frontrunner to be the Democratic candidate for president, Edwards tumbled into disgrace after he was found to be having an affair while his wife was dying of cancer. He has been the target of a nearly two year investigation into whether he used around $1 million in campaign funds to silence his lover and pay staffers to stay quiet.

The New York Times New York Lawyer Cancer