Posted on 08/15/2008 2:11:58 AM PDT by edpc
WASHINGTON - John Edwards' political action committee paid his mistress $14,000 after she stopped working for it to obtain 100 hours of unused videotape she had shot for his unsuccessful presidential campaign, an associate told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The woman, Rielle Hunter, already had been paid $100,000 for the programs.
The explanation — which Edwards' advisers declined to discuss on the record — is the first effort to justify the payment in April 2007 to Hunter. That payment came months before Edwards' chief fundraiser quietly began sending money himself to the pregnant woman.
Edwards last week acknowledged he had an affair with Hunter in 2006. The former Democratic presidential contender and senator from North Carolina has denied any knowledge of those payments to Hunter from Fred Baron, Edwards' national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney. Baron also has described his payments to Hunter as a private transaction.
But the $14,000 payment to Hunter is significant because its source was Edwards' OneAmerica political action committee, whose expenditures are governed by U.S. election laws. Willfully converting money from a political action committee for personal use would have been a federal criminal violation.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
She worked for it--in Edwards' hotel room after hours.
So are they saying she was EXTORTING the money, refusing to hand over the tapes unless further payment was made??? If the project was finished in 2006 and she had been paid $100,000 already, one would think that all raw materials created for the project already belonged to the Edwards campaign - unless they have INCOMPETENT lawyers who gave Rielle a contract that did not specify that all the created materials would belong to the campaign.
This explanation does not begin to pass the smell test.
Clearly Johnny-boy wanted to funnel more money to her. $14K..... suspiciously similar to the reported $15K per month that became the standard payment for her ongoing support - was this the beginning of THAT arrangement, and then they decided they needed to get it away from the campaign and the PAC and handle it with ‘private’ contributions? That would seem to be the likely explanation - need to create political, media, and legal pressure by emphasizing the possible legal/criminal aspect of misuse of PAC or campaign funds, so that Edwards aides can be deposed under oath, documents can be subpoenaed, etc. Hope someone has more of a “memory” than all the Clintonista scum who can never remember anything......
Her “rate” was apparently a lot lower than Spitzfong’s “Kristin” at $5K per hour .... but then for Rielle it was “love” and not merely business....... she gave Edwards the “house special”
Somebody needs to go to prison here.
When it's a Dem, no laws apply, not gonna happen. Amazing to be untouchable. Oh well...NEXT!
Since it is a crime to use a fund regulated by U.S. election laws as a personal slush fund, this could be a big criminal deal. Except Edwards is a democrat. I’m pretty sure being a democrat makes him immune from prosecution. Sort of a “get out of jail free” card.
I’d feel pretty comfortable giving 10 to 1 odds that no matter how much money was paid to Edwards’ sugar mama, and no matter how illegal the transaction was, nobody gets prosecuted.
If the NY Times is now smelling it, it's enough to gag a maggot. You're right about the work for hire. A boilerplate contract would have covered this. If it didn't, then it was intentionally written so as not to--if there even was a contract apart from something hastily cobbled together as after-the-fact ass covering.
Clearly, “Payment for services rendered”! ;-P
Unused videotape? Probably not “unused” in the sense of having nothing on it. It might be “unused” in the sense that it wasn’t sent to the Enquirer or some television tabloid show...and the $14,000.00 was most likely just the first monthly payment of a lifetime “rental” of that tape.
Enquiring minds would love to know what’s on those “unused” hours of videotape and what would make them worth $14K. I’m sure nothing embarrassing, just routine stuff. Were the cameras rolling “after hours”? Probably not, but who knows?
I think John Edwards has “been had” in more ways than one. Surely a forty something year old female with her background knows how to prevent pregnancy. With that said, I doubt the silk pony was privy to her lack of preventive measures. If he was, only his trial lawyer hubris or drugs could explain his stupidity. Can’t you just envision this lovely couple as President and First Lady. Would have made the Clintons look respectable and given Prince Charles and Camellia Parker Bowles something to snicker at, LOL.
” yea, unused video tape... that's the ticket!”
What about the money going to Andrew Young...?
Bump
Why would she want to prevent it? It’s like turning down your paycheck at work.
This is one of those headlines that make you want to read the article even though you know you’re getting jobbed when you do.
Bump
It is like a student loan. He keeps paying for many years.
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