John Edwards

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A former aide to John Edwards testified Tuesday about the lengths the former presidential candidate went to to hide his affair with a campaign videographer, including raising money from wealthy benefactors to help support the woman, developing code words to conceal his communication with her and crafting an elaborate payment scheme to route money to her. In his second day of testimony, Andrew Young said he felt uneasy about...

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A desperate politician willing to break federal laws to get elected president? Or a husband and father trying to protect himself and his family from humiliation from public disclosure of his extramarital affair? Those were the starkly different portraits of John Edwards presented during opening arguments Monday, the first day of the former presidential candidate's criminal trial on charges that he violated campaign finance laws. Edwards is accused of accepting more than $900,000 from benefactors to pay for expenses of his mistress and hide the affair from his family - revelations that could have derailed his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Opening statements are set for today in the trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards, as federal prosecutors try to prove that more than $900,000 paid to Edwards by two wealthy benefactors during his run for the White House should have been reported as campaign contributions because the money flowed to his mistress to preserve Edwards' image as a "family first" candidate. Edwards' defense team is expected to argue that the payments were gifts from wealthy friends and the money was used for expenses unrelated to the 2008 campaign.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Two portraits of John Edwards emerged in opening arguments at the trial of the disgraced politician, who is accused of breaking campaign finance laws by accepting more than $900,000 in illegal contributions to help conceal an extramarital affair during his 2008 bid for president. The prosecution on Monday portrayed Edwards as a liar and a deceiver who went to great lengths to cover up his affair to protect his campaign image as a family man. The defense portrayed him as a man who committed a sin - a sin Edwards acknowledges - but did not break the law. The former senator from North Carolina has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts related to campaign finance violations.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - In a federal criminal case that has the markings of sex, money, betrayal and a handsome politician's fall from grace, former presidential candidate John Edwards' trial for alleged campaign finance violations opens Monday in Greensboro, N.C. Edwards is accused of accepting more than $900,000 in illegal contributions during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination to pay the expenses of his mistress and hide the...

Last week, jury selection began for John Edwards' trial in Greensboro, N.C. He's charged with accepting and concealing nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions during the 2008 Democratic presidential race. It's an extraordinary moment. Usually, allegations of campaign finance shenanigans are handled as civil matters by the bipartisan appointees on the Federal Election Commission. Unfortunately, the agency's most significant decisions have often loosened the bonds of campaign law. But Edwards has been charged in a federal criminal proceeding with "knowingly and willfully" breaking the law. That means a jury of regular folks, not Beltway partisans and lawyers beholden to the system, will determine his guilt or innocence.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Jury selection begins Thursday in the federal election corruption trial of former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, who is accused of conspiring to violate campaign laws, accepting illegal contributions and making false statements. Edwards, 58, a 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate, made millions in courtrooms as a personal injury lawyer in North Carolina. Now he faces a 30-year prison sentence and up to $1.5 million in fines if convicted on all six federal counts against him. The government has accused Edwards of using nearly $1 million in donations from two wealthy benefactors to hide an extramarital affair during his unsuccessful 2008 campaign for president.  Prosecutors say Edwards solicited the money to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer who was pregnant with Edwards' child.

Former senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has been connected by a New York online news site to Anna Gristina, the "Millionaire Madam," a claim that Edwards has swiftly denied. According to DNAinfo , a New York City crime news site, a call girl working for Gristina divulged to the Manhattan district attorney's office that she was paid to service Edwards in 2007, while he was in the city to raise money for his presidential bid. Allison Van Laningham, a lawyer for Edwards, released a statement on the allegations, and has requested that the story be retracted.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Rielle Hunter, former mistress of John Edwards, won ownership through a legal settlement Thursday of a tape showing her and Edwards having sex during his 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hunter had sued former Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife in 2010 over the tape and other personal items the couple said she left in a box of trash. Hunter lived with the Youngs while she was pregnant, and Young initially said he was the father.