Imagine that.
John Edwards facing indictment for allegedly breaking campaign laws to hide affair.
news.yahoo.com
Federal prosecutors will soon indict former presidential candidate John Edwards on charges that he allegedly broke the law by using campaign cash to cover up an extramarital affair with a former campaign staffer
A source tells ABC News, that Edwards is aware of the charges, which could come down within the next two weeks, and is considering his options, including a plea bargain that could potentially prevent the case from going to trial.
The looming indictment comes a little over two years after investigators began looking into Edwards' 2008 fund-raising and payments his campaign made to Rielle Hunter, a former campaign videographer who later gave birth to his child. The government will reportedly contend Edwards allegedly used hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal campaign contributions from a pair of wealthy contributors to hide his affair with Hunter and her subsequent pregnancy.
Andrew Young, a former top Edwards aide who initially pretended to be the father of Hunter's child and later wrote a tell-all book about his former boss, has testified repeatedly before the grand jury and is expected to be a key witness in the potential trial.
Last month, Young was spotted in Washington after reportedly meeting with prosecutors. In recent months, a parade of former top Edwards staffers have testified before a North Carolina grand jury in the case, as prosecutors have tried to determine how much Edwards knew about his campaign's finances.
In March, Edwards added former White House counsel Greg Craig, a well-known defense attorney in Washington, to his legal team.
Amid his legal troubles, Edwards has largely vanished from the public eye. Neighbors near his North Carolina home say he's stopped going to restaurants and bars in the area. The last time he was captured by cameras was at the funeral of his estranged wife Elizabeth, who died of cancer in December.
(Photo of Edwards: Jim R. Bounds/AP) |
