News-Observer:“Federal prosecutors in the John Edwards case are trying to prevent two former Federal Elections Commission chairmen from testifying as expert witnesses in the criminal case against the former presidential candidate. In a document filed in federal court Monday, prosecutors contend that Scott Thomas and Robert Lenhard, former FEC chairmen who have raised questions about the prosecution’s definition of campaign contributions, should not be classified as expert witnesses. Prosecutors contend that what the two men would offer are legal conclusions that would usurp the authority of the judge, the trial court’s ‘own legal expert.'”

I am called fairly often by attorneys looking to retain me as an expert and I generally tell them the same thing: the judge is the expert on the law.  Election law specialists generally can be more useful as co-counsel than as designated experts.

That said, it seems the FEC Commissioners might be doing something different than testifying as to how to correctly understand the law: they could be testifying as to the understanding at the FEC of the laws and regulations on personal funds and contributions at the time of the Edwards payments.  This could go toward Edwards’ possible mental state at his trial.  I think we’d need to know more about the nature of the testimony and its relation to the charges to know if the government is right here.

Thanks to Jason Abel for the pointer.