PITTSBORO, N.C.  – A judge is considering whether to send a former John Edwards aide to jail for contempt over his handling of a purported sex tape showing the former presidential candidate. Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones said Tuesday he was “troubled.” He decided to break for part of the afternoon to consider the matter.

Lawyers for Edwards’ mistress, Rielle Hunter, accused Andrew Young of “dozens of lies.” They took issue with Young’s handling of materials that Hunter is seeking, including the tape.

Young described in written affidavits a limited number of people who have seen parts of the tape. But Hunter’s attorneys produced an affidavit Tuesday of another man who said in a written statement to the court that Young also showed the tape to him.

by Laura Barron
NBC17
RALEIGH, N.C. — Andrew Young, John Edward’s former aid, is opening up about what it’s like to continue to live in Chapel Hill.

Young said it was a relief getting John Edwards affair and his own role in covering up the paternity of Edwards’ child off his chest. He details it all in his book “The Politician” and is still living in the same community as John Edwards.

Young said there was no way to predict how things would turn out. He said Elizabeth Edwards has threatened to sue him for alienation of affection, but he has not talked with her or John.

“I see them at baseball games, cause we live very close, our kids play against each other in baseball, I mean Chapel Hill is a very small community so we see them regularly, but they walk the country mile not to talk to us,” Young said. “It’s hard on the kids, the kids don’t fully understand.”

In a community where Elizabeth Edwards is well-liked, Young said he has received mixed reactions from people about the details of his book.

“Have we had some fallout? Sure; but I can tell you the people that have come left, right and center, like we went to a Carolina basketball game the other night, and the number of people that came up and showed complete support and love, really shocked me,” Young said.

Young’s book is currently number two on the New York Times best seller list and he says a movie deal is in the works.

“We just signed a contract with a guy named Ari Emanuel,” Young said. “He’s working with some really high profile people; they think there are a lot of lessons to be learned out of this.”

Young said he will be in court on Tuesday, March 9, the next step in a battle with Edwards’ mistress Rielle Hunter. A judge has requested a list of materials be turned over including copies of an alleged sex tape. Young said he is fully cooperating and to his knowledge there is nothing left to turn over.

PITTSBORO, N.C.  – Attorneys are returning to court in an ongoing dispute over a tape purportedly showing two-time presidential candidate John Edwards in a sexual encounter.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. on Tuesday. He has kept former Edwards aide Andrew Young under a contempt order and asked during a court hearing two weeks ago for Young to submit a complete affidavit that accounts for his handling of the tape and other materials.

Edwards’ mistress, Rielle Hunter, has sued Young for invasion of privacy and sought the return of the videotape. That video has been turned over to the court and placed under seal.

Related: Andrew Young Talks About Life in Chapel Hill

By PPP

It’s no secret that North Carolina doesn’t like any of its politicians right now- neither the Governor nor either Senator can muster an approval rating greater than 35%. But they’re doing a whole lot better than some of the state’s former elected officials. A month after we found only 15% of voters in the state with a positive opinion of John Edwards we now find that Mike Easley’s not doing much better, with just 16% of voters holding a favorable view of him.

Easley’s numbers aren’t quite as bad as Edwards- just 59% of North Carolinians have an unfavorable opinion of him compared to 72% for the former Senator and Presidential candidate. There are a lot more voters who are ambivalent toward Easley.

Nevertheless it’s quite a drop for Easley, who was easily the state’s most popular politician during most of his time as Governor. When PPP last looked at his approval in November of 2007 he was at a 51/32 approval rating, markedly better than any of the state’s current officials can claim.

Easley’s numbers are at their worst level in the Triangle, despite its being the most Democratic area of the state. He has a 12/71 spread, which may be a product of the controversies surrounding him since he left office getting more attention there than in other parts of the state. It should be noted though that there isn’t a particularly great partisan divide in attitudes toward Easley to begin with- only 22% of Democrats view him positively along with 16% of independents and 9% of Republicans.

It seems safe to say North Carolina won’t be seeing any of the political comebacks some former officials are making in other states any time soon.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Attorneys for John Edwards’ former campaign aide say he should not have to surrender a video showing his old boss in a sexual encounter.

Andrew Young’s lawyers said in court documents filed Thursday that he does not appear to have a copy of the video Edwards’ former mistress is seeking through a restraining order. Rielle Hunter claims in an affidavit the “private” video was made in 2006, but Young’s attorneys say he has a video in which a woman engaged in a sexual encounter with Edwards is “noticeably pregnant.”

Hunter had Edwards’ child in 2008.

Young’s attorneys also say Hunter abandoned her belongings, surrendering her privacy. Young has said he found the sex tape in a “box of trash” that Hunter left behind at a home in Chapel Hill.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has finally come forward to admit that he is the father of a child born to a videographer he hired before his second White House bid. “It was wrong for me to ever deny she was my daughter,” he said Thursday.

Edwards released a statement to The Associated Press after long denying that he’d fathered a child during an affair with Rielle Hunter. The admission comes shortly before a book on the scandal is due out from a former campaign aide who was expected to describe how Edwards worked to hide his paternity.

“I am Quinn’s father,” the former senator declared in his statement, as the second birthday of Frances Quinn Hunter approaches.

A lawyer for Hunter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not clear where she is living.

Frances was born Feb. 27, 2008, indicating that the child was conceived in the middle of 2007, several months after Hunter stopped working for Edwards. John and Elizabeth Edwards renewed their wedding vows in July of 2007 to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

A former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, initially claimed paternity of the child shortly before the 2008 presidential primary contests began. Young is scheduled to release a book on Feb. 2 that details the scandal.

Elizabeth Edwards, whose cancer returned in an incurable form in March 2007, has stood by her husband despite the affair. She has said that it does not matter to her whether her husband fathered a child with Hunter, saying, “that would be a part of John’s life, but not a part of mine.”

Since admitting the affair in August 2008, John Edwards has largely gone into seclusion. He has acknowledged a federal investigation into his campaign finances while both Young and Hunter – with her child – have made appearances at a federal courthouse in Raleigh.

In the statement Edwards released Thursday, he said, “I will do everything in my power to provide her (Frances) 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.”

Edwards also said, “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,” the statement said. “To all those I have disappointed and hurt, these words will never be enough, but I am truly sorry.”

Edwards’ attorney, Wade Smith, said in an interview that Edwards wrestled with the decision to come forward but took so long to do it because “he’s not the only person involved in this.”

“It’s a complex family situation, and he had to keep in mind that other people have concerns and worries about it,” Smith said.

Smith said there would never be a logical explanation for why Edwards initially denied being the father. But he added that Edwards was “very pleased” to finally set the record straight.

“To say that life has been hard for John Edwards for the past year would be an enormous understatement,” Smith said. “His life has totally fallen apart. It’s been a very difficult time for him. He recognizes that he has been at fault.”

Edwards, a U.S. senator representing North Carolina from 1998 until his vice presidential bid in 2004, acknowledged in May that federal investigators were looking into how he used campaign funds. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh has declined to confirm or deny an investigation. Smith declined to comment Thursday about the probe.

Edwards adamantly denied during an interview with ABC News last summer that he had fathered a child with Rielle Hunter, and he welcomed a paternity test.

Edwards had said the affair ended in 2006. That year, Edwards’ political action committee paid Hunter’s video production firm $100,000 for work. Then the committee paid another $14,086 on April 1, 2007. The Edwards camp has said the latter payment from the PAC was exchanged for 100 hours of unused videotape that Rielle Hunter shot.

The same day, the Edwards presidential campaign had injected $14,034.61 into the PAC for a “furniture purchase,” according to federal election records.

Fred Baron, who was Edwards’ national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney, said in 2008 he quietly sent money to Hunter and to resettle Young’s family. Baron died later that year.

RALEIGH, N.C.- The former mistress of John Edwards spent much of the day in a federal courthouse in Raleigh where a grand jury was meeting Thursday, at a time when federal investigators are examining the two-time presidential candidate’s finances.

Rielle Hunter walked into the building in the morning through a back entrance, holding a young child.

Edwards adamantly denied during a confessional interview with ABC News last summer that he had fathered a child with Hunter, and he welcomed a paternity test. His wife, Elizabeth, has said while promoting her book that she doesn’t know if her husband is the father.

Former Edwards aide Andrew Young, who made a similar courthouse visit while the grand jury was sitting last month, said in 2007 he was the child’s father. Hunter said around the same that Young was the father and the birth certificate does not list a father’s name.

Hunter’s attorney, Michael Critchley, said outside the courthouse he did not expect his client to comment when she emerges.

Edwards has admitted to an affair with Hunter that he says ended in 2006. That year, Edwards’ political action committee paid Hunter’s video production firm $100,000 for work. Then the committee paid another $14,086 on April 1, 2007.

Edwards, a North Carolina senator from 1998 until his vice presidential bid in 2004, acknowledged in May that federal investigators are looking into how he used campaign funds. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh has declined to confirm or deny an investigation.

Young hasn’t spoken publicly since saying he was the father in 2007 and has repeatedly ignored reporter requests for interviews.

WASHINGTON – John Edwards’ mistress received $100,000 from his political action committee in an 18-week span in 2006, payments that raise this question: Can politicians use PACs as their own personal piggy banks?

From staging fundraisers in Las Vegas to financing ski trips, current and former lawmakers have spent PAC money on a broad range of seemingly personal activities over the years, all the while maintaining they are doing so for strictly political purposes.

In the wake of the disclosure of Edwards’ affair with videographer Rielle Hunter, Edwards has acknowledged a federal criminal investigation is under way into his presidential campaign fund.

But it was the former senator’s PAC – which is separate from the campaign – that paid $114,000 in 2006 and early 2007 to Hunter’s Midline Groove Productions. Hunter shot videos of Edwards as he spread the populist message he subsequently would adopt in his presidential campaign.

PACs like Edwards’ One America Committee have legal flexibility that campaign committees do not.

It is illegal under federal election law to convert campaign funds to personal use. But that prohibition doesn’t extend to PACs in most cases, according to the Federal Election Commission, which in March asked Congress to tighten the law.

The FEC “has seen a substantial number of instances where individuals with access to the funds received by political committees have used such funds to make unauthorized disbursements to pay for their own personal expenses,” the FEC said in its legislative recommendation to Congress.

Leadership PACs are “a form of giant slush fund; they should be banned,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a campaign money watchdog group.

Their political purpose enables PACs to receive tax-exempt status.

“If a politician uses a PAC as a piggy bank for personal expenses he better make sure to accurately disclose the payments on FEC forms and pay taxes on the income,” says Jan Baran, a top campaign finance lawyer in Washington and a partner at Wiley Rein LLP.

Edwards could face a number of issues in the criminal investigation, whose existence he confirmed on May 3.

Was the purpose of the PAC money to Hunter to pay for a handful of online videos on Edwards’ travels? That would seem to be the case based on the PAC’s reports to the FEC. The money to Hunter’s production company was for “Website/Internet Services,” the reports state.

But if the money were for some other purpose, that could amount to a criminal act by those who caused incorrect information to be filed with the FEC.

Another issue surrounds the final $14,000 PAC payment to Hunter on April 1, 2007, from One America, which didn’t have enough money on hand at the start of the day to make the payment, according to records filed with the FEC.

The Edwards presidential campaign injected $14,034.61 into the PAC that day for a “furniture purchase,” the records state. That put enough money in the political action committee account to pay Hunter $14,086.50 the same day.

The Edwards camp has said the money from the PAC was exchanged for 100 hours of unused videotape Hunter shot.

It could be a criminal act if the real purpose was something else, such as an effort to keep the videographer quiet about the affair.

When Edwards disclosed the existence of the criminal investigation early this month, he said in a statement that he was “confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly.”

This week, Elizabeth Edwards seconded her husband’s assertion, saying that “it’s just not possible” that campaign funds were paid to Hunter.

“The way campaign funds are distributed is all a matter of record,” Elizabeth Edwards said on NBC’s “Today.”

The Justice Department prosecutes the personal use of campaign funds.

Among high-profile politicians who have gotten into legal trouble over personal use of campaign funds are former House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., and former Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio. Rostenkowski ultimately pleaded guilty to mail fraud; Traficant was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from businessmen and his own staff.

More recently, a former congressional candidate in Kansas pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds to cover a check for the down payment on a home.

In her new book, Elizabeth Edwards describes her understanding of the first meeting between her husband and Hunter, writing that Hunter greeted Edwards with the come-on line, “You are so hot,” after waiting for him outside a New York hotel.

That was followed within months by Edwards going on the road, with Hunter accompanying him to key primary states. One America paid the videographer $100,000 from July to November 2006, seven weeks before Edwards declared his candidacy.

Between John and Elizabeth Edwards they make up the political figures with the highest and least levels of popularity with North Carolina voters of anyone PPP has polled on in the last year, the PPP reports.