Ex-aide tells court cash went to house, not Edwards’ mistress
GREENSBORO, North Carolina —An ex-aide acknowledged during John Edwards’ campaign finance fraud trial on Thursday that much of nearly $1 million in cash from donors went to build the aide’s dream house, not to buy the silence of the presidential candidate’s pregnant mistress.
Andrew Young testified for a fourth straight day at the trial, peppered with questions from Edwards attorney Abbe Lowell about the money from two donors that flowed into personal accounts controlled by Young and his wife.
The star prosecution witness is key to the government’s case that while campaigning for the White House in 2008, Edwards directed a scheme to use the secret payments to conceal an affair with his pregnant mistress.
Edwards, whose affair shattered his carefully cultivated image as a committed family man, has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts. He faces up to 30 years behind bars if convicted.
Young has said he took secret payments from wealthy donors at Edwards’ direction to help conceal the presidential contender’s affair with Rielle Hunter and keep his presidential campaign viable.
Young said the checks secretly provided by a then-96-year-old heiress were mixed with the couple’s other funds as they built their $1.5-million hilltop house in North Carolina.
Young initially claimed he was the father of Hunter’s daughter and took her into his home with his wife.
Lowell asked Young about numerous changes to the construction of the North Carolina house after the payments started coming in, including a pool, home theater and extra bedroom.
At the time, Young and his wife were living with Hunter in a $20,000-a-month rental mansion along the California coast, paid for by a wealthy lawyer who served as Edwards’ campaign finance chair.
Edwards denies knowing about the $725,000 in checks from heiress Rachel “Bunny” Mellon sent to Young through her interior designer. In addition to the maximum $2,300 to the Edwards campaign allowed by law, Mellon also provided another $6.4 million to a political action committee and antipoverty foundation tied to Edwards.
A second pool of money at issue in the case involves another $200,000 given by the wealthy lawyer, Fred Baron. Records shown at trial show Baron paid for private jets, five-star hotels and other expenses incurred by Hunter and the Youngs while they were in hiding.