The Justice Department is ready to indict former presidential candidate John Edwards on charges that he violated campaign finance laws by covering up an extra-marital affair during the last presidential campaign, per reports.
The investigation is centered on two wealthy donors, Rachel Mellon and Fred Baron, who the government alleges spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to keep the affair secret.
The government’s argument is that it added-up to illegal campaign contributions.
The former North Carolina senator had an affair with Rielle Hunter that started after she was hired to produce promotional videos for his campaign. A daughter came from the affair.
Before his death in 2008, Baron denied Edwards knew of the arrangement.
Andrew Young, a former Edwards aide who originally claimed paternity of Hunter’s child, has since admitted that Edwards was involved in the attempted cover-up.
The government has to prove that the intent of the donations was to cover-up the affair so that Edwards could continue his pursuit of the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, according to legal experts, if the case goes to trial.
