Tag: John Edwards (page 3)

The grand jury investigation into John Edwards continues. Today, the grand jury heard from Lisa Blue Baron, the widow of Edwards' campaign finance chair Fred Baron. Blue was accompanied by her Washington attorney, Abbe Lowell. Where does Ms. Blue fit in the picture?

Reportedly, the grand jury is investigating whether Edwards' campaign funds were improperly diverted to Rielle Hunter. Fred Baron said the money he gave Hunter was personal money, not campaign related, and that Edwards didn't know about it at the time. According to Andrew Young (whose credibility is zero in my book) Lisa Blue was assigned the task of comforting Hunter on the phone during the time period he was tasked with babysitting her and pretending to be the baby's father.

Rielle Hunter, in her GQ interviewed said:[More...]

Bump and Update: Four relatives of Bunny Mellon are at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, NC where the grand jury investigating John Edwards' campaign finances is meeting:

Sources told WRAL News that Stacy Lloyd III, the son of heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon; his two sons, Stacy Lloyd IV and Thomas Lloyd; and Thomas Lloyd's wife, Ricki Lloyd, were called to testify before the grand jury.

The FBI has already spoken to Bunny Mellon, having made two trips to her farm. Her lawyer, Alexander Forger, said months ago he testified before the grand jury and said Edwards did nothing wrong.

Why is this heating up now? Perhaps because Republican U.S. Attorney George Holding, who reportedly is not leaving the office to make way for Obama's nominee Thomas Walker, until he's done with Edwards' investigation, has more time on his hands having finally concluded the investigation of former Gov. Mike Easley (which ended with a whimper rather than a bang). [More..]

Twenty new grand jury subpoenas have been issued in the federal investigation into whether John Edwards violated campaign financing rules with respect to money the campaign provided Rielle Hunter.

The subpoenas were ordered at the behest of Main Justice:

According to our source, when that process wrapped-up, prosecutors in Raleigh sent the case to the Department of Justice in Washington for a review. The Justice Department then told prosecutors in Raleigh to interview more people and get more information about the people who donated money to help Edwards' former aide Andrew Young, his wife and Rielle Hunter live a life on the run.

It sounds like the investigation has moved from whether the payments to Rielle were legitimate to whether there was hush money paid afterwards. The relocation expenses were purportedly paid by now-deceased attorney Fred Baron, who was Edwards' campaign manager in 2004 and 2008. He told the Dallas Morning News: [More...]

The Rielle Hunter Rehab Tour continues. The next installment: Oprah Winfrey. When? May sweeps, of course. The misunderstood mistress, who no one cares about, who only talks about herself, has chosen Oprah Winfrey over Diane Sawyer and Barbra Walters to share the next tawdry installment. The up side: Oprah's on daytime, none of us with day jobs have to worry about watching.

How many faces does this story have? [More...]

Update: Here's a interesting profile of Rielle Hunter from her hometown magazine in Ocala, FL.

It gets worse. GQ not only has the Rielle Hunter interview that will appear in the magazine I wrote about earlier, it has the video of her photo shoot (in which she doesn't look like she's hating being photographed without her pants or provocatively) and outtakes from the interview. Highlights:

• John Edwards asked her opinion as to whether he should endorse Obama (she didn't give one)

• Edwards lawyers asked her to swear in writing she didn't leak or sell information about them

• She hasn't spoken to her sister in 17 years (the sister that went on TV to talk about her) -- it sounds like she doesn't talk to anyone in her family :

(More...]

Rielle Hunter, paramour of John Edwards, is telling her side of the story to GQ.

The first thing I noticed is the photo spread of Hunter that accompanies the article. In two of the three photos, she's wearing no pants and her white shirt is unbuttoned suggestively. In a third, her sweatpants are loosened and untied with her now flatter belly exposed and her child on top of her. She looks like she's auditioning for a Hollywood movie. No matter what she has to say, it's going to be hard to take her seriously and impossible not to question her motives.

She looks good, kind of like Heather Locklear. What we learn: She loves her "Johnny." She insists she didn't meet him in the bar (but afterwards on a street corner)and she would never approach a man first. But what are the first words she says to him on the street corner? "You're so hot." The inconsistencies in her tale get worse as the interview progresses. [More...]

The National Enquirer is reporting a federal grand jury in North Carolina investigating payments by John Edwards' presidential campaign's to Rielle Hunter, is about to be indicted -- "imminently."

The Enquirer got lucky and was right about Edwards' affair. Are they pushing their luck?

It seems the grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina does frequently meet on Thursdays. (Grand juries sit for 12 to 18 months. In lesser populated districts, they meet a few days a month.)

Does the Enquirer merely have a scoop that the grand jury is concluding the investigation, and realizing it has a 50% chance of being right, jumping the gun and choosing the option that would boost their traffic? Or, is there a leak from John Edwards' camp? [More....]

John Edwards can't catch a break. The National Enquirer reports he has proposed to Rielle Hunter and is buying a $3.5 million home for them to live in together. Edwards spokesman denies it.

Meanwhile, a court in North Carolina continues to deal with Andrew Young and the "personal video." Apparently, the court wasn't satisfied with Young's accounting for originals and copies of tapes and photographs and the other day entered this supplemental contempt order. The parties return to court next week.

I also can't figure out what business the FBI had taking a copy of the tape from Young's lawyer for presentation to the grand jury, as Young claims in his latest affidavit. How is it relevant to the investigation into whether Edwards knew campaign contributions were funneled to Hunter? According to Young, there's no sound on the tape and you can't make out the woman's face. [More....]

Why is ABC so heavily promoting its segment tonight with Andrew Young, author of the sleaze book on John Edwards? I have gotten an e-mail from ABC every few hours today. Their website is filled with news and details of his appearance. So is GMA, they've been hyping it all week. I wouldn't watch Young, a self-promoting scam artist, if they paid me.

Young is not an unbiased journalist. He has a past filled with transgressions, from tax liens to misdemeanor convictions. He's out to make money. He's trying to bury Edwards. I hope no one buys his book.

As for the sex tape he's trying to peddle, the court put a kabosh on that for the time being, granting Rielle Hunter's motion for a temporary restraining order preventing him from disseminating it. A hearing will be held Feb. 8. [More...]

Update: John Edwards is now in Haiti helping with relief efforts. Not a surprise given his trips to El Salvador to build houses last year. Gotta give him credit for trying to redeem himself.

John Edwards has released this statement admitting paternity of Rielle Hunter's child to NBC News:

“I am Quinn’s father. I will do everything in my power to provide her with the love and support she deserves. I have been able to spend time with her during the past year and trust that future efforts to show her the love and affection she deserves can be done privately and in peace.

It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me. I have been providing financial support for Quinn and have reached an agreement with her mother to continue providing support in the future.

To all those I have disappointed and hurt these words will never be enough, but I am truly sorry.”

Friends of John and Elizabeth say they are separated. Elizabeth has opened a furniture store.

New York Magazine has a ten page excerpt from the new book, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, which hits the stores Monday.

You'll feel like taking a shower after reading it.

Neil Lewis of The New York Times disappointingly mixes factual reporting and hearsay from a tabloid-type, book proposal by a dubious character in the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter drama and presents it as a news story on the grand jury investigation into the contributions Fred Baron made to Hunter from Edwards' presidential campaign fund.

The factual reporting includes the topics of Hunter's grand jury testimony:

Ms. Hunter testified to the grand jury in detail about her relationship with Mr. Edwards, lawyers involved in the case said, as well as the benefits she was provided by his supporters after she became pregnant.

[More...]