John Edwards' funds: Grand jury eyes

by Mark Silva

Back in the Carolinas, the news cycle has moved beyond South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's alleged journey to the Appalachian Trail and carries us today to the federal courthouse in Raleigh., N.C.

Where Rielle Hunter, former mistress of former N.C. Sen. John Edwards, slipped in the back door this morning for a meeting with the grand jury.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether Edwards misused campaign funds in his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination as hush money for Hunter, the campaign videographer with whom he struck up an affair. Hunter was paid $100,000 by the Edwards campaign in 2006 to produce a series of videos .

Hunter carried her daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, who was born in February 2008, into the courthouse with her today. Edwards has denied being the father, though has publicly admitted to an affair with her in 2006.

Andrew Young, a former Edwards aide who claimed paternity of Hunter's daughter, has pitched a tell-all book to a New York publisher. In his proposal, Young said he is not the father of Frances Quinn and that he earlier took responsibility for the child as a favor to Edwards. Young also has reported that some home sex-movies were made.

Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, battling cancer, has published her own book, a memoir entitled: Resilience.

Edwards has maintained that there was no impropriety in campaign payments for Hunter's work.

The investigation will require grand jurors to sift through millions of dollars in donations gathered over several years for Edwards' presidential run.

"Much of it was collected in large chunks by non-profit groups kept at arm's length from Edwards,'' Mandy Locke, of McClatchy Newspapers, reports. "It is not clear how all of that money was spent. The federal grand jury meets in secret. Its discussions are confidential. The jurors have the power to bring criminal charges but can also decline to pursue a matter brought before them by prosecutors.''

The Republican Sanford, who admitted to an affair with an Argentine woman, has apologized to his wife, his family and the voters of South Carolina. There are no known videotapes.