John Edwards’ aides ‘sought cash from donors to hide mistress’

At the time, Edwards, a former lawyer, was seeking the nomination of his party
to run for president, and Miss Hunter had become pregnant with their child.

Mr Young said he became alarmed at the set-up with Mrs Mellon after it was
arranged that she would send him cheques written out to her decorator, which
would then be endorsed in his wife’s maiden name.

Telling the court his wife, Cheri, was unhappy with the situation, Mr Young
said: “It was crazy. She was scared to death. We were all scared to
death.

He was a viable presidential candidate and this was a lot of money, much more
money than had ever flowed through our accounts, and getting my wife
involved, and just the nature of it all seemed crazy.”

Mrs Mellon sent cheques totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars during
2007, which Mr Young said he was aware was more than the dollars 2,300 cap
on individual donations, so asked Edwards a number of times if they were
legal.

“It was way, way, way over and this was directly involved in his bid to
run for president,” Mr Young said.

“He said it was completely legal, that it was a non-campaign expense.

“He was frustrated with me asking him so many times and he (said he)

had spoken to several campaign finance experts and it was absolutely legal.

“We felt extremely uneasy about it. It felt and smelt wrong but in the
end we decided he knew a lot more about the law than we did so we went along
with it.

“We were all scared – this was a huge thing in the middle of a
presidential race.”

Mr Young has been granted immunity from prosecution in return for testifying
against the one-time star of the Democrat Party.

Edwards stared straight at Mr Young during his testimony, occasionally smiling
or shaking his head as his former friend told how he had frequently helped
him conduct his affair, covering for him when it appeared on the brink of
being exposed.

In the spring of 2007, Mr Young said Miss Hunter telephoned him saying she
needed to reach Edwards urgently, but he wasn’t returned her calls.

“She was crying, she was distraught and she needed to speak to Mr Edwards
immediately,” he said.

“I said something to the effect somewhat jokingly, ‘someone better be
pregnant or dying’. She said: ‘nobody’s dying’.”

When Mr Young spoke to Edwards, he told the jury: “He said that she was a
crazy slut and it was a one in three chance that the child was his.”

Mr Young went on to claim paternity of Miss Hunter’s baby in a desperate
attempt to avoid exposing Edwards as the father.

The defence is expected to argue that it was Mr Young and his wife who
benefited financially from the secret donations, passing only a small amount
of money on to Miss Hunter.

Edwards claims he hid the truth about his affair and the fact he had fathered
a child out of wedlock to avoid upsetting his wife, who was dying from
breast cancer, and not to further his political career.

The case continues.

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