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Payments from a wealthy heiress to the Mellon fortune through a Monroe, N.C., interior decorator helped subsidize the cover-up of John Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter. The decorator, Bryan Huffman, eventually became the conduit for as much as $700,000 from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon – what the Edwards camp called "Bunny money" – to help cover the expenses of Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young, Edwards aide who claimed to be the father of her baby. Mellon's money was part of more than $1.5 million that Young told ABC News was used for the cover-up. He said the money paid for a...

<p>WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.</p>

A democratic fundraiser has obtained an experimental cancer-fighting drug through the Mayo Clinic although initially the drug maker refused to give it because the drug has not been approved to treat the disease he is suffering. Fred Baron, a prominent political donor for the Democratic Party, obtained Tysabri finally after legal basis was found that he can be given the drug, his son Andrew Baron was cited as saying in an e-mail to the Associated Press. Baron said Tysabri is the last resort for treatment of his 61-year-old father's late-stage multiple myeloma for which the older Baron was given a...

A prominent political donor for the Democratic party has apparently gotten his hands on an experimental drug to fight cancer over the objections of the drugmaker. The drug, Tysabri, which is manufactured by Biogen Idec Inc., is approved only for use in patients with multiple sclerosis or Crohn's disease. Biogen refused to give permission for it to be used in a single-patient investigation on the ailing donor, Fred Baron, in spite of pleas from many high-profile figures like former President Bill Clinton and cyclist Lance Armstrong. Nonetheless, Baron received the drug at the Mayo Clinic, which apparently managed to work...

WASHINGTON – John Edwards' political career is probably not coming back. But Fred Baron insists he is not going away. The Dallas trial lawyer, both celebrated and vilified as the King of Toxic Torts, made a handsome living confronting big companies on behalf of sick and some not-so-sick plaintiffs. He's a lightning rod again, after admitting he paid to move the presidential candidate's mistress away from prying tabloid reporters. He says political enemies will try to use the episode against his efforts to elect Democratic candidates in Texas....

In yet another example of why more and more people are turning to the Web for their news, the DBKP blog has just uncovered information that the John Edwards campaign has been refunding campaign contributions even before billionaire Warren Buffett suggested that Edwards could be hit with a class action lawsuit. And can you guess which of the two of Edwards' Americas got the majority of the refunds? DBKP explains: The Edwards ‘08 Campaign for President has quietly refunded almost $4 million to individual contributors, a number of them, bundlers and big backers. This should be news to Warren Buffet who...

When newly minted vice presidential pick Joe Biden arrives in Denver, he will be greeted by one of his most generous supporters, trial lawyer Fred Baron. Baron, the wealthy Dallas founder of the Baron & Budd law firm, headed the nation's trial lawyers association while Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. And before Baron sold his firm in 2002, lawyers there donated $108,100 to the Delaware senator, making the firm one of his most prolific contributors, according to a review by the Center for Responsive Politics. snip Baron said this afternoon that he is thrilled with Sen. Barack Obama's choice...

As NewsBusters editor Matthew Sheffield recently wrote, the John Edwards scandal demonstrates why the public is moving to the web for news. A big reason for the public relying more and more on the web for news is that the blogosphere is willing to do the investigative footwork that the mainstream media often neglects. A perfect illustration of this are the revelations made today by the DBKP blog about the suspicious aircraft leasing arrangements made by John Edwards' moneyman, Fred Baron:

Questions for John Edwards and Fred Baron When Next Either Surfaces to Confront the PressA "Thank You" to our Network of Readers, Comment-writers and Tipsters! ...including all at Free Republic John Edwards and Fred Baron have had a close relationship over the last ten years. Both Edwards and Baron are successful trial attorneys and both shared the dream of seeing John Edwards elected President. Both may, at some point, want to share some information on campaign travel billings. A DBKP reader, known only as "Phil Ander", did some independent research into the Edwards' campaign's use of Baron's private jet and...

"I have this recollection of somebody asking me for lawyers in New York, and I remember naming three or four, and he must have been one of them," Mr. Baron said. Referring to Ms. Hunter, he added, "It was either her who called or somebody on her behalf." ...

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...

The John Edwards scandal may have just landed flat onto Barack Obama, regardless of whether Edwards is his running mate or just a bad memory. Jake Tapper at ABC notices that Fred Baron, the man who sent money to both Edwards’ mistress and the supposed father of her child, has been raising money for Barack Obama as well. One has to wonder whether his duties at Team Obama are anywhere near as extensive: The Dallas Morning News over the weekend profiled Fred Baron, the chairman of Sen. John Edwards’ campaign finance committees in both his 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns.Baron...

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.

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...

The Men Behind Edwards Our editor, Walter Olson, has covered this territory before, but it's worth revisiting as Kerry and Edwards make their way across key states in their bus caravan campaign. The report on the men behind John Edwards at EdwardsWatch makes for interesting reading.:According to published reports, Edwards received $4.65 million from 3,220 lawyers, 29 paralegals, 17 legal assistants and 555 people with the same address as a personal injury attorney contributor (such as a spouse or close relative). The $4.65 million represents 63% of the total money raised by Edwards. Over one-third of those contributors gave the...

FREDDY'S BACK!Fred Baron Ran John Kerry In The Senate, Now He's Running DNC?? __________________________________________________________________________"TRIAL LAWYERS ON BOARD: Fred Baron, longtime Democratic fundraiser, former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, named co-chair of 'Kerry Victory '04' by DNC…" (ABCNews.com's "Noted Now," 5/24/04)BARON SAID TRIAL LAWYERS RAN SENATE Fred Baron Quipped About Power Of Trial Lawyers In Senate: "Lastly, there is another reason [a legislative solution to the asbestos litigation crisis] won't happen. I picked up my Wall Street Journal last night . . . and what did I learn? 'The plaintiffs' bar is all but running the Senate.'...