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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...

Former presidential candidate John Edwards knew his ex-mistress, Reille Hunter, was receiving payments from his former campaign finance chairman, according to the National Enquirer, the publication that broke the story of Edwards' affair. What's more, says the Enquirer, it has "uncovered that Edwards' political operatives are still paying" Hunter. After months of denials, Edwards admitted to the affair, but vehemently denied fathering a baby with Hunter, or knowing she was being paid. Edwards said, "I've never paid a dime of money to any of the people that are involved. I've never asked anybody to pay a dime of money, never...

Fred Baron now claims that he moved Young and Hunter, gave them money, but didn't know about the affair until a few weeks ago... The former campaign finance chairman for John Edwards said this morning he was unaware of Edwards' affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter when he paid to move her to California last year. In an e-mail this morning to The News & Observer, Dallas lawyer Fred Baron wrote, "I will re-state what I have previously stated on one point: I learned of the affair only a few weeks ago and had previously presumed that the 'tabloid' stuff...

Edwards Scandal Puts Texas Plaintiffs Lawyer on the DefensiveTuesday August 12, 3:02 am ET Zach Lowe, The American Lawyer Dallas-area Democrats defended Fred Baron on Monday, saying his loyalty to his friends and passion for Democratic politics were behind his payments to John Edwards' mistress and the Edwards campaign worker who has identified himself as the father of her child. Baron, a trial lawyer who became one of the kings of asbestos litigation, has admitted paying Rielle Hunter and former Edwards campaign staffer Andrew Young's relocation expenses when they moved out of North Carolina and into million-dollar homes in California...

As most of you know, John Edwards is a lawyer. But that fact alone probably wouldn’t give us subject-matter jurisdiction over the bizarro story involving him and video producer Rielle Hunter (pictured, left). Fortunately, however, Fred Baron (pictured, below right) gives us the in we need. The dealio: In the midst of the weekend’s news that Edwards had had an affair with Hunter, news also broke that someone had paid not only for Hunter to move from Chapel Hill, N.C., to Santa Barbara, Calif., but for the man who claims to be the father of her child, Andrew Young, to...

So...I come home from work, expecting to see the latest on the investigation into the Edwards cover-up, tax fraud, election and charitable contributions fraud, etc. and turn on Fox News. There was NOTHING on this story...but an ad during every commercial break for the law firm of Baron & Budd.

RALEIGH, N.C. - There were few people closer to John Edwards during his presidential campaigns than Fred Baron, a renowned Texas trial lawyer who evolved into one of the Democratic Party’s key fund-raisers. Baron, who made his fortune as a celebrated litigator on asbestos-injury cases before turning his attention to Democratic presidential tickets, was part of Edwards’ inner circle of advisers. But when it came to one key financial decision, Baron said he chose to keep the former senator out of the loop. On Friday, after Edwards confessed to having an affair with Rielle Hunter, a video producer with whom...

Yes, it's great to have one more example of hypocrisy and lack of virtue in the Democratic Party made public, but we shouldn't let this story devolve into just "another politician screws up, fathers illegitimate baby" meme. Yes, it's rather "con-veeeee-nient" that Edwards says, with a smug, self-assured smile, that he will gladly submit to a paternity test and Rielle Hunter says, "No way, no how," but is being named the father or not really what this latest cover-up is about?

Dallas lawyer Fred Baron told The Dallas Morning News today that he made regular payments to the woman that former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has confessed to having an affair with. Mr. Baron, who was chairman of Mr. Edwards’ presidential campaign finance committee, said he paid money to Rielle Hunter to move from North Carolina to another location.

Dallas lawyer Fred Baron told The Dallas Morning News today that he made regular payments to the woman that former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has confessed to having an affair with. Mr. Baron, who was chairman of Mr. Edwards’ presidential campaign finance committee, said he paid money to Rielle Hunter to move from North Carolina to another location. He said she and another campaign aide, Andrew Young, who claimed paternity of Ms. Hunter’s child, were being dogged by tabloid reporters who believed she had an affair with Mr. Edwards and fathered his child. Mr. Baron would not say how...

Huckabee's Record: Freed a Rapist Who Became a Killer, Destroyed Gov't Hard Drives, Raised Taxes, Misappropriated Funds Extremist Religious Views Appeal to Christian Nationalists But Will Repel Normal Voters in the General Dems Should Pray He's on the Ticket Recent polls show that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and Baptist preacher, is rising in popularity in Iowa, where he is cutting into Mitt Romney's lead. (Romney has 28 percent, Huckabee has 24 percent in the ABC news survey; Romney is at 27 percent and Huckabee's at 18 percent in the local KCCI-TV poll.) He's also moving up in...

Sandy Berger, former national security adviser to ex-president Bill Clinton, is poised to join hedge fund DB Zwirn as a special adviser.DB Zwirn, a US-based investment fund, is thought to have hired Mr Berger to gain access to his network of business and government contacts as it eyes new investment opportunities. The hedge fund, whose strategies include investing in M&A arbitrage, debt and mezzanine finance, is considering making infrastructure asset investments. Mr Berger would be expected to help with introductions to various government officials.Mr Berger served as deputy assistant to the US president for national security during Mr Clinton's first...

<p>October 10, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton was showered with pricey gifts while he was in office from the leaders of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, but he didn't disclose them because they were earmarked for his presidential library in Arkansas, a new report yesterday revealed.</p>

Ex-medical examiner unable to testify Joan Wood has resurfaced, but says stress prevents her from appearing in court about several murder cases. By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published August 23, 2002 GAINESVILLE -- Dr. Joan Wood virtually disappeared after she was forced into retirement as Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner in late 2000. She dodged subpoenas to testify in murder cases about autopsies. She didn't answer her phone or knocks on her front door. To this day, defense attorneys can't locate her. Defense attorney Michael Schwartzberg of St. Petersburg said he has never had so much...

It looks as if Pardongate witness Paul Adler has decided to pull a Webster Hubbell and "roll over one more time" rather than finger New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the New Square, N.Y., vote-trading scam. Adler, a Hillary 2000 fund-raiser who doubled as Mrs. Clinton's liaison to New York's Jewish community, was sentenced yesterday to 19 months in prison on influence peddling and tax fraud charges - by the same federal prosecutors who recently had to abandon their Pardongate case against Sen. Clinton. The feds had hoped that Adler would be a key witness against the former first lady,...

Bill and Hillary Clinton have finally made good on a 1996 pledge to pay off witnesses who stuck by them throughout the scandal investigations of the 1990's, according to financial disclosure forms released by Sen. Clinton's office on Friday. Beyond showing that the former first couple now has a multimillion dollar annual income with up to $30 million in the bank, the disclosure forms reveal that the Clintons paid in excess of $1.3 million in legal bills from an account separate from their legal defense fund, with a portion of that money going to former staffers. Ostensibly, the staffer payments...

1980 Letter from Weakland to Marcoux The following is a transcription of a hand-written letter from Archbishop Rembert Weakland to Paul Marcoux, dated Aug. 25, 1980. A handwriting analyst who reviewed the letter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel concluded it is done in Weakland's handwriting. It was sent inside a card with the following quote: Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words. - George Eliot August 25, 1980 Dear Paul, The epigram on the cover is more to stir me on than an expression of where - pro...