Another firm lawyer, Steven G. Schulman, is said to be close to a cooperation plea.

John Edwards announced Wednesday he would be returning $4,600. in campaign contributions from William Lerach. He's not returning the $81,000. Lerach and other lawyers in his current firm, Lerach Coughlin of San Diego, contributed.

Next up: Oil man Oscar Wyatt who is on trial for actions related to the U.N. Oil for Food Program. If convicted, Joe Biden and Bill Richardson have said they will donate his contributions to charity. John McCain and Hilary also received money from Wyatt, but not for their presidential campaigns, so they don't plan on returning his money.

The first Milberg-Weiss partner to plead guilty was David J. Bershad. I wonder which candidates he contributed to. OK, I'll look it up. According to FEC records, he gave $2000 to John Edwards in 2004 when he worked for Milberg Weiss. He also gave to Hillary, Barack Obama, Bill Nelson,Carolyn McCarthy, Frank Lautenberg, Stoney Hoyer and several others.

I don't think the money should be returned unless the criminal donee provided funds from illegal activity. Where's the law that says a person under investigation or convicted of a crime can't contribute? If there's a question about the source of the fees, I'd rather see the campaigns put the money in an escrow account and tell the government to do its job...find out if the campaign contributions were made with clean money. If it turns out the donations were legitimate, there's no need to return them. Convicted criminals have every right to be personally invested and involved in choosing our next leaders. If their money is clean, the candidates should keep it.