Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has insisted that he broke no laws when he hid his pregnant mistress while seeking the nomination in 2008.
On Friday a grand jury indicted Edwards, 57, on six counts of violating campaign finance laws, lying to the government and conspiring to protect his candidacy by breaking the law.
The case against Edwards could rise or fall on whether the federal government is reaching too far and trying to hold Edwards to a higher election law standard than usual. The government maintains that by accepting money to keep his mistress, Rielle Hunter, and eventually their baby, Frances Quinn Hunter, out of sight, he was trying to maintain the viability of his candidacy. Therefore, said the government, the money constituted undeclared campaign contributions.
Edwards did not take questions. Edwards’s attorney, Gregory Craig, called the prosecution “unprecedented.”
Edwards, said the indictment, “failed to disclose these illegal contributions” to the Federal Election Commission.
Edwards’ former aide, Andrew Young, was a key witness. He helped solicit the money, falsely claimed he was the father of Hunter’s child, and took his wife and three children into hiding with Hunter.
Mellon first began giving money to Edwards in spring 2007, when the presidential campaign was in full swing. Baron, who died in 2008, paid for at least five chartered planes to whisk Hunter and the Youngs from Florida to Aspen, Colo.; San Diego; and Santa Barbara, Calif.
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How John Edwards nearly ruined everything
Then Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. during a Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008.
As the summer of 2006 wore on, a very real path to victory emerged for Edwards: Defeat Clinton in Iowa's activist-dominated caucuses, survive New Hampshire, then win again in Nevada with union support, and finish Clinton off in South Carolina, Edwards' native state.
By December, it was clear Obama was running, and that was basically it for Edwards, whose dreams of cornering the grass-roots, anti-Hillary market were ruined. Now it was a Hillary-Obama race, with Edwards relegated to a supporting role. Edwards saw his opening: If Hillary suffered a bad loss in New Hampshire, she might be forced out (or at least marginalized). Then it would be an Obama-Edwards race, and the battleground would shift to the South. Hillary's numbers kept falling. To any fair-minded viewer, it looked like exactly what it was: Edwards and Obama -- the two men in the race -- ganging up on Hillary. Whatever the explanation, Clinton's surprise triumph slammed the door on Edwards' nomination chances. It was still a Hillary-Obama race and Edwards was still an afterthought. If Obama, truly a once-in-a-generation political phenomenon, hadn't emerged, Edwards probably would have gotten his one-on-one race with Hillary -- a race he could have won.
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John Edwards on Rielle Hunter Not Destroying Sex Tape: You Moron!
A Rielle Hunter Home Wrecker
Edwards reportedly put it to Rielle Hunter on tape in a hotel room in Indianapolis in 2007. Young, of course, claimed HE was the father of Hunter's daughter Frances Quinn, helping hide Rielle and cover John's tracks for a long stretch.
Rielle Hunter has served him with a lawsuit in a North Carolina court, calling for the John Edwards sex tape
Edwards is scheduled to the questioned about the tape on June 20.
So what's on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter sex tape?