In 2005, Young purchased the 10 acre lot for his home from Toben. It was adjacent to Toben's house.

On December 29, about to begin their cross-country odyssey, Young drove to Toben's house to hide his car and Toben drove the Youngs and Rielle to the airport. The Enquirer had published the story that Edwards was the father of Hunter's unborn baby on December 19, 2007, and Young issued his statement claiming paternity the same day.

ABC News reports today that Toben was chosen to to ferry the trio out of N.C. because of his closeness to Edwards.

Toben, who was once so close to Edwards he was asked to sneak a pregnant Hunter out of North Carolina in the dead of night, said after Edwards quit the race he went to the Obama campaign to warn them of offering Edwards a job in the administration.

Andrew Young wrote in his book he drove to Toben's house that night to ask for his help hiding his car and getting to the aiport to get out of North Carolina. He said Toben didn't ask a single question. (page 241.) Young never says it was Edwards' idea to call Toben. Toben says Edwards called him afterwards to thank him.

Toben testified in Court today that at one time he had sent Andrew Young an e-mail asking how much he thought the sex tape was worth.

Toben said he had jokingly talked to Young about how much the tape might be worth. The defense lawyers produced a 2009 email from Toben to Young that said: "Wonder what that tape is worth today?"

Let's back up. In Februrary, 2010, Rielle Hunter stated in her Second Affidavit filed in the state civil lawsuit she brought against Andrew and Cheri Young that she stayed at the Youngs' home in the Governor's Club community for a few weeks in September, 2007.

In October, 2007, she moved to a separate rented home in the same community. She left no possessions at the Youngs' home. After moving into this separate house, she had her possessions, including the hatbox which contained the sex tape and other personal items, shipped to her from her old residence in New Jersey. These items were never at Andrew Young's home. Hunter said in her first affidavit filed in January, 2010, that she mangled and cut the sex tape to prevent anyone from watching it in December, 2006. She said the tape was filmed in September, 2006.

According to her second affidavit, when she prepared to leave North Carolina in December, 2007, thinking she would only be gone a few weeks, she packed one suitcase and left the rest of items, including the hat box with the sex and other tapes inside in the home. She had cut and mangled the tape so no one could watch it.

A few weeks after arriving in California, Hunter called Toben and asked him to retrieve some items from her home. There was a hidden key so he could get in, and she guided him over the phone to the items she wanted.

Hunter says in her affidavit that she never asked anyone else to retrieve items from her home until September, 2008, about a month before her lease at the Governor's club was up, when she asked a trusted friend to pack up her things. The hatbox was there, but the videotapes, including the sex tape, were not.

Young and his wife maintained they found the sex tape in the trash at their home when moving things into storage in July, 2008. Young said in his book Hunter had abandoned the tape and other items. He says he and his wife repaired the tape marked "special" and watched it. (Cheri thought it might be "the missing webisodes" from the campaign that Elizabeth Edwards had been looking for. Book, p. 280.)

In a court pleading filed Feburary 4, 2010, the Youngs maintained the tapes had been left and discarded in their home when Hunter moved into her own residence in October, 2007. They said they were not inside the hatbox and the hatbox was not in their home. They said in August, 2008, Hunter asked them to get her passport (and only her passport) from the hatbox in her home. Since the Youngs were out of town at the time, they said they asked a friend to retrieve the passport. They didn't identify the friend or say how the friend got into the house -- presumably it was with the "hidden key." Hunter says in her first affidavit the Youngs had both a passcode and a key to her Governor's Club home (they had rented it for her.)

On Feburary 5, 2010, Andrew Young testified at a contempt hearing, after which he and Cheri Young were found to be in contempt of court for failing to comply with court orders regarding the sex tape.

Young had shown the sex tape to ABC News and others. In affidavits, he listed those people. But at a later contempt hearing in March, 2010, when he and his wife were faced with going to jail for 75 days, he was forced to admit he had shown the sex tape to a journalist named Robert Draper at his home in Chapel Hill in March, 2009. (He told the court he had been too drunk to remember before. He got out of the jail sentence.)

There's no indication Young showed the tape to Toben, but they discussed it. And none of this proves the charged crime -- that John Edwards believed or knew the money he accepted from Fred Baron and Bunny Mellon in 2007 and 2008 were campaign contributions and he had a legal duty to report them.

As the worm turns.