"Ex-aide recalls John Edwards’s wife confronting him over affair; Daughter leaves during testimony about late mother" by Michael Biesecker | Associated Press, May 03, 2012
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A former adviser to John Edwards recounted Wednesday how the former presidential candidate’s now-deceased wife confronted her husband, baring her chest in front of staff members the day after a tabloid reported that he was cheating on her.
During a session that saw Edwards’s daughter leave the courtroom in tears, Christina Reynolds described how Elizabeth Edwards stormed away from her husband, then collapsed. She returned to confront her husband again. In front of several staff members, the woman who had endured treatments for breast cancer took off her shirt and bra.
“ ‘You don’t see me anymore,’ ’’ Reynolds quoted Elizabeth Edwards as yelling. “He didn’t have much of a reaction.’’
Edwards then boarded a jet and took off for his scheduled appearance, Reynolds said.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Who Gives a Damn?
Hers was the most stirring testimony of the day at Edwards’s trial on corruption charges....
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"Former aide testifies about efforts to keep Edwards’s affair secret; Says staff fretted increasingly over the relationship" by Michael Biesecker | Associated Press, May 04, 2012
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Another former close aide to John
Edwards testified Thursday about bungled efforts to keep the former
presidential candidate’s affair hidden from staff members, including an
awkward encounter when the woman showed up at a hotel weeks after her
work filming Edwards had ended....
Edwards’s lawyers have said he didn’t know about the money, and he has pleaded not guilty to six counts related to campaign finance violations. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted on all counts.
Hunter’s contract with the Edwards’s organization wasn’t renewed at the end of 2006, days after a campaign event where Davis said he saw the Democratic candidate’s wife crying after seeing her husband with the videographer.
But Davis said Hunter did not go away. In February 2007, he ran into her in an elevator at the candidate’s Detroit hotel.
“We exchanged brief pleasantries,’’ said Davis. “I would have preferred not to have seen her.’’
When he saw that she pushed the button for Edwards’s floor - where Davis also had his room - he stopped on another floor just so he could get into a different elevator car. Shortly after, he was on the phone with his wife to express his shock at seeing Hunter. He heard a knock at the door of his room. It was Hunter, who came in to talk.
“She told me that she and Senator Edwards were very much in love and that he was concerned that I had seen her,’’ Davis said.
That's what the crazy slut said?
The next morning, Edwards called Davis to his room and, without being asked, denied that he was having an affair with Hunter. During the period in question, Davis was serving as Edwards’s body man - a close assistant who travels with a politician or candidate to handle a variety of tasks.
“He told me she was crazy and that we should make sure she didn’t talk to him,’’ Davis said.
Asked if he believed Edwards, Davis replied: “I chose to believe him.’’
But not long after his encounter with Hunter, a change was made in hotel arrangements. Davis said he had always stayed in a room close to the candidate, but the staff began staying on a different floor than Edwards during trips.
“Mr. Edwards suggested maybe a little separation would be good,’’ he said.
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"Former Edwards aide testifies about wife’s outrage at donor; 2d witness says candidate knew of coverup funds" by Michael Biesecker | Associated Press, May 10, 2012
GREENSBORO, N.C. - A former campaign spokeswoman for John Edwards testified Wednesday
that his wife angrily confronted a key donor about the man’s support
for the presidential candidate’s pregnant mistress in 2007 at a hotel in
Iowa....
Palmieri had become close friends with Elizabeth Edwards, and John Edwards hoped her presence could help calm the situation. Palmieri is now the deputy communications director for President Obama.
That day in October 2007, Palmieri said Baron’s wife, Lisa Blue, admitted to Elizabeth Edwards she had flown Hunter to Los Angeles for a shopping trip.
“You’ve got to hold your friends close and your enemies closer,’’ Palmieri quoted Blue as telling the enraged wife. Blue said that Hunter was a “loose cannon’’ who could have exposed the affair to the media, Palmieri said.
At the time, a tabloid was publishing an article about the affair, and Palmieri said the campaign was absorbed with keeping the story from crossing over into the mainstream media.
Yes, HOW UTTERLY SAD that the "tabloid" SCOOPED the AmeriKan mouthpiece media!
Edwards had told his wife he had a brief fling with Hunter but that he had ended the affair many months earlier, according to earlier testimony.
In fact, Edwards had continued the affair and Hunter was then pregnant with his child. A close aide to Edwards, Andrew Young, had rented the mistress a home a few miles away from the Edwards family estate in Chapel Hill. The candidate had kept the arrangement secret from his wife.
How much John Edwards knew about the money spent on Hunter to cover up his affair is a critical question at his trial. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six counts of campaign finance violations related to about $1 million in secret payments from Baron and 101-year-old heiress Rachel “Bunny’’ Mellon....
On Wednesday, Edwards’s defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, admitted his client had “lied quite extensively’’ in a nationally televised network interview from August 2008....
Palmieri said Edwards decided to go ahead anyway after his wife drafted a public statement for him denying the baby was his and pressed for its release. She said Elizabeth Edwards still believed her husband was not the father, and Palmieri tried to dissuade her of that.
The poor woman was in denial.
In an attempt to mitigate the damage from the planned interview, Palmieri said she selected ABC’s “Nightline’’ as the venue for the interview because the news show was going up that night against the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on rival NBC, which was expected to get far bigger ratings.
After Edwards lied repeatedly in the interview, Palmieri said she asked a friend of Edwards’s to deliver him a message that she did not want him to call her for help anymore.
She did see him occasionally because she remained friends with Elizabeth Edwards, who eventually separated from her cheating husband. Palmieri was with the Edwards family when Elizabeth died in December 2010 after her long battle with cancer.
Palmieri broke down as she described how her friend was not able to speak in her final days but had earlier told her about one of her greatest fears.
“She was concerned that when she died, there would not be a man who loved her there,’’ Palmieri said.
The statement caused Edwards, who had shown no reaction for much of his former spokeswoman’s testimony, to drop his head and put a hand to his face....
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"Prosecutors in Edwards trial wrap up their case" by Michael Biesecker | Associated Press, May 11, 2012
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Prosecutors rested their case against John Edwards Thursday after calling to the witness stand some of his closest friends and advisers, many of whom gave dramatic, often unflattering testimony about the former presidential candidate whose once-promising political career collapsed amid a sex scandal.
Edwards is accused of being the mastermind behind a plan to use secret payments from two wealthy campaign donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. The trial centers on whether Edwards knew what the money was being used for, and when he knew it.
While the past 14 days of testimony focused on the money trail, the trial has also revisited Edwards’s breathtaking fall....
He
lied repeatedly to his wife, his advisers, and the public.
It never seems to be a problem when it's mouthpiece media.
It never seems to be a problem when it's mouthpiece media.
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Thankfully that compromised piece of shit scum and potential target of blackmail never got near the presidency.
Also see: AmeriKan Media All Over Edwards Trial
Update: Jury will decide Edwards campaign corruption case
