John Edwards Asks For Trial Delay, Cites Recently Diagnosed Illness

John Edwards, once a front runner for the President of the United States asked a judge this week to delay his campaign finance lawsuit. Edwards cited an undisclosed medical illness that he was recently diagnosed with as reason to delay the trial.

Edwards was scheduled to stand trial starting on Jan. 30 and has asked that the judge push the trial back at least two months while he deals with his medical condition.

According to the filed motion:

“The Defendant has a medical issue … that will prevent a trial of this matter during the January 2012 Criminal Term,” and “The failure to grant a continuance would be likely to result in a miscarriage of justice.”

The motion goes on to note:

“Since this trial date was set, the government has produced as part of the discovery process an additional 103,102 pages of material including more than 91,000 e-mails as well as 26 voice mails received by cooperating witnesses between 2007 and 2010.”

Further both Edwards and the government are still seeking more evidence from North Carolina state courts for which the motion states:

“Absent a continuance, Mr. Edwards’ counsel will not be able to effectively use the evidence the government was obligated to provide him … and this, in turn, threatens Mr. Edwards’ right to effective counsel and a fair trial.”

While federal prosectors did not comment on the medical part of the request they did file a separate motion that opposed the Edwards request for more time to prepare for the case.

Federal prosecutors plan to try Edwards on six felony and misdemeanor counts related to $1 million in donations he used fro wealthy donors to hide his pregnant mistress during his 2008 run for the White House.

Edwards has plead not guilty to the charges and continues to claim that he did not know about the cover-up that occurred.

John has already had his trial date pushed back once when he claimed to need more time to prepare and asked for an extension so he could attend his daughters wedding.

During a pretrial appearance last week John Edwards looked to be in perfect health.

[Image via Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com]