John Edwards indicted over money used to hide affair

Federal grand jury indicts former US candidate over allegations he misused campaign funds The former US presidential hopeful John Edwards has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly using $925,000 in illegal campaign contributions to keep his mistress in hiding during the peak of his 2008 campaign for the White House. The case of USA v Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. The indictment said the payments were a scheme to protect Edwards’ White House ambitions. “A centrepiece of Edwards’ candidacy was his public image as a devoted family man,” the indictment said. “Edwards knew that public revelation of the affair and the pregnancy would destroy his candidacy by, among other things, undermining Edwards’ presentation of himself as a family man and by forcing his campaign to divert personnel and resources away from other campaign activities to respond to criticism and media scrutiny regarding the affair and pregnancy.” The indictment and an arrest warrant were filed in Greensboro, North Carolina, where his campaign was headquartered. Negotiations between Edwards’ lawyers and federal prosecutors to settle on a charge to which Edwards was willing to plead guilty continued on Thursday, but proved fruitless, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Prosecutors had insisted on a plea to a felony, which would endanger Edwards’ ability to keep his licence to practice law. An Edwards spokeswoman said she was not aware of the filing and declined immediate comment. The indictment is the culmination of a federal investigation that lasted more than two years and scoured through virtually every corner of Edwards’ political career, including his political action committees and whether he did anything improper during his time in the US Senate, which ended seven years ago. The centrepiece of the investigation has long been the hundreds of thousands of dollars privately provided by two wealthy Edwards supporters his former campaign finance chairman, Fred Baron, and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the 100-year-old widow of the banking heir Paul Mellon. The indictment said that money went to keep Edwards’ mistress, Rielle Hunter, and her baby in hiding in 2007 and 2008, during the apex of the Democratic nomination campaign. The indictment refers to $725,000 in payments made by Mellon and another $200,000 made by Baron. It said the money was used to pay for Hunter’s living and medical expenses and for chartered airfare, luxury hotels and rental for a house in Santa Barbara, California, to keep her hidden from the public. It accused Edwards of lying when he told the media he did not know about any payments. A former campaign staffer, Andrew Young, who initially claimed paternity of Hunter’s child, has said Edwards was aware of the private financial support that helped keep the mistress secluded. Prosecutors believe the private gifts should have been considered campaign contributions because they aided his candidacy. The case opens a new front in how the federal government oversees the flow of money around political campaigns. A lawyer for Edwards said last week that the government’s case was “novel and untested” and argued that the government’s theory was wrong on both the facts and the law. Edwards and Hunter began their relationship in 2006, just as the 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee was plotting a second run for the White House. She was hired to shoot behind-the-scenes video footage of the prospective candidate. Edwards’ political action committee and a nonprofit affiliated with him both paid Hunter’s video-production firm about $100,000 for the work. Edwards initially denied having an affair with Hunter but admitted it in the summer of 2008. He then denied being the father of her child before confessing in 2010. His wife, Elizabeth, died of cancer in December. Young has said that Edwards agreed in 2007 to solicit money directly from Mellon. The long-time Edwards aide, now estranged from his former boss, said he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cheuqes from Mellon, some hidden in boxes of chocolate. Mellon and Edwards are still friendly and had lunch together at her Virginia estate last week. Baron, who was a wealthy trial lawyer, said a few months before he died in 2008 that he helped Young and Hunter move across the country to protect them from media scrutiny. He said Edwards was not aware of the aid, but Young has claimed overa Edwards did know. John Edwards Democrats US politics US elections 2008 United States guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 3, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.