John Edwards Affair: John, Elizabeth Edwards, Rielle Hunter, Fred Baron Latest News

Lawyers on Lawyers, Closing Statement, MSM Cooties, Birds of a Feather and Clear-Eyed Liberals



John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, Fred Baron: Items of interest, gleaned over the weekend concerning the John Edwards scandal, not to be addressed in any of the stories DBKP has in the works for the next 36 hours.


The Closer

Doug Ross sums up John Edwards' Closing Statement to the public. Doug sprinkles serious comments and questions couched in droll commentary. A sample:

And I certainly had no idea that my friend and patron Fred Baron had relocated Ms. Hunter from North Carolina to California. And paid for Andrew Young to move too.



Or that he paid her $14 grand for her video footage after the campaign had already paid her $100,000 for the same videotapes.

[Background information: Access over 90 DBKP stories from December on the John Edwards scandal: DBKP John Edwards Love Child Scandal Library.]



Questions from lawyers (Overlawyered) to lawyers (John Edwards & Fred Baron)


Overlawyered's Walter Olsen does the useful service of Coordinating the Edwards Story.

Overlawyered's been asking questions that the MSM should have been asking of lawyers--not associated with the Edwards' campaign--for the last nine months and longer. One such article: Fred Baron’s version of the Rielle Hunter payments
. In it, Ted Frank asks two reasonable questions:

* When did Andrew Young stop working for Edwards, and why?
* How did Young and Hunter afford those nice homes in North Carolina to begin with?

There's ever so much more: just go to Overlawyered and search under "John Edwards" and "Fred Baron". That will be enough to keep readers occupied for awhile.

And while we're on the subject, here's a question for Overlawyered; it comes from DBKP reader, liamd:

Lawyers for Hunter and Young both claimed Young was the father. If it turns out …. surely it will…that Edwards is the dad, any consequence for the lying lawyers? Or can they just lie as long as they are not under oath? Anyone know?

Interesting question, liamd.


Enquirer Gave the MSM "Cooties"

Now that it's okay for the MSM to discuss the John Edwards scandal, Kelly Corbiella, of CBS News, asks, "How Did A Supermarket Paper Beat Other News Media To The Biggest Political Scandal Of The Day?"


"...Cobiella asked, if this is such scoop, and this was first out several [ED NOTE: nine] months ago, why didn't others pick up on it?"

Kurt Anderson, a media analyst and contributing editor at New York Magazine, said, "That is the sixty-four thousand million dollar question, isn't it?

"The National Enquirer gives the story cooties for all the Times and Boston Globes, the Washington Posts of the world. That is partly because thirty years, forty, fifty years ago, the National Enquirer was very different than today. It is this low-brow celebrity scandal-mongering thing."

Corbiella also quotes David Perel, of the Enquirer, on Elizabeth Edwards' involvement:

"Stop, stop. I don't want to go there. I do not like it," Perel said to a reporter's suggestion about the Elizabeth Edwards angle. "She's been hurt, she's lashed out."

"So there is such a thing as 'untouchable'?" Cobiella asked.

"Just some places you don't go," Perel told her. "And there's some places I don't want to go. And in this case we really have tried to stay away from that aspect of the story.

"I want to hit the news element of the story. I want to hit the fact that a man running for president had an affair and then lied about it to the American public and, you know, darn near blew up his own political party while doing it."

Of course, the Enquirer's been busy enough with tracking mistress, Rielle Hunter's movements, money trails and every other aspect of the scandal--months ahead of everyone else in Big Media.




My Little Chickadee Pigeon

Big Media source, Pigeon O'Brien, emails Deceiver with a complaint and an offer of a conditional pastry treat.

Included in the above post: What does RoseAnne Barr thinks about John Edwards--and oh, by the way, Bush? Let's just say she set up a whole round of a******s and F***s on the house for everyone.


Sally Kalson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, starts to ask some uncomfortable questions and make a few equally-uncomfortable observations, What were the Edwards thinking? John Edwards was courting public suicide -- and his wife helped him.

People's marriages are their own business. If Mr. Edwards in 2006 had an extramarital affair, or worse, with a younger woman who made videos for his campaign and if his wife forgave him, that's for their family to deal with. But what in blazes was the man doing running for president with this time bomb in his hip pocket? And what was Elizabeth Edwards thinking when she encouraged him, made speeches for him, touted the strength of their marriage in the face of adversity as an indicator of his fitness for office, knowing that he'd cheated on her?

It may seem mean-spirited to pose that question about a wronged woman fighting cancer, especially one who was so brave and determined on the campaign trail. But as a fellow survivor, I claim a little leeway.

The disease may give you a pass in some areas. Chemo-brain is a legitimate excuse for forgetting things and making mistakes. Thoughts of your own mortality may cloud your judgment and crowd out other concerns. They also might make you desperate to achieve a long-held dream while there's still time.

This last point may explain how Mrs. Edwards could have gone out on the campaign trail on her husband's behalf, knowing what she knew, exhorting voters to believe in him as she believed in him. But even in separating his infidelity from his fitness for office -- and she's certainly not the first wife to have done that, as Hillary Clinton can attest -- she must have known they were playing with fire.

We wondered about a few those questions at DBKP, especially LBG's John and Elizabeth Edwards: New Info Casts Doubt on Couple’s Claim Affair Ended in 2006 and John Edwards Affair: When Private Lives Become Public Lies
, as well as Friday's John Edwards Scandal Photo: John and Elizabeth Edwards with Rielle Hunter Dec 30, 2006 - Exclusive DBKP Photo!.

Kalson wraps up her excellent story with:

Early in the primary, when the couple announced that Mrs. Edwards' cancer had returned, some in the media pressed hard on how they could forge ahead with such an all-consuming undertaking. Turns out it was the right question, but based on the wrong premise.

This isn't the first time the media missed an essential part of the story, and it won't be the last time a politician self-destructs this way. More's the pity on both counts.

Exponentially exact.


Words from a Clear-Eyed Liberal Mouth


Self-confessed "gossipophile", "Proud Bleeding Heart Liberal" and DBKP reader, PJ McIlvaine, sums up the John Edwards Scandal in one headline. [Sex, Lies, Money, Videotape and Pampers] The MSM's complete non-coverage--prior to Edwards' signing Big Media's permission slip on August 8--is dealt with in her post:

Sad to say, it SHOULD BE a journalist's wet dream...because it appears that, yet again, the MSM is letting bloggers like Deceiver and Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts do the leg work. Even more appalling is when MSM writes about it, and then fails to properly attribute their sources. Come on guys, you know better than that. You're not some rinky dink operation like Newsday (which, by the way, except for one headline story, has pretty much stayed away from the JE mess like Christie Brinkley from her snake of an ex). I like Christie, I'm glad she stood up to that jerk, but that's another blog.

And the Progressive defense about "we have other issues, and besides he denied it and we swallowed it"? McIlvaine minces few words:

And some of these progressive sites I go to, well, after a burst of righteous indignation, they seem to have fallen back to their sloppy ways of blaming everyone but JE and EE. He lied, he's still lying, everyone is lying...but let's not talk about it because, you know...we bought those lies. And since JE isn't going to be at the convention, hey, it's over with. Not important. Move along. We have to keep our eye on the prize.

Uh-uh. I'm not buying that shit.

Sounds like PJ might be liberal, but nobody's gonna tell her to get in (the party) line and shut up.

by Mondoreb
images:
* ABC via DBKP
* Doug Ross
* Wikipedia

John Edwards Affair; Edwards, Rielle Hunter, Rush Limbaugh and Assumptions

"Assumptions are sometimes useful, sometimes worthless. Assumptions based on someone's lies should be labeled, 'ABOSL'."
--DBKP's Guide to the Aspiring Writer





We always read the comments to stories here at DBKP. In fact, one of our mantras is, "The comments are part of the story".

Another is, "Sometimes, the comments are better than the story".

One comment alerted us to a story, Is Rush Limbaugh Reille Hunter´s Sugar Daddy?, written by Dee, at Immigration Talk with a Mexican American. Dee is anything if not economical: she shoehorns a lot into her story.

Think of Edwards story. The timeline! He is convinced it is NOT his baby because his last quickie with her was in April. She is not impregnated until late May. His ego does not allow him to consider IVF.

We mention this because it points out a danger that all writers--DBKP included--face; i.e., of basing assumptions on a public figure's lies. The lies are found out and POOF!, there goes all your theories.

In the John Edwards scandal, the biggest two assumptions were made by the Mainstream Media and plague them today as they struggle to explain to their readers why they didn't trust them with information on this story before August 8.

The first: that John Edwards told the truth. The second assumption was that because the National Enquirer reported the information, it couldn't be trusted, not even enough for them to do their own investigations, prior to late July.

As we point out in our soon-to-be published writer's guidelines: Assumptions are sometimes useful, sometimes worthless. Assumptions based on someone's lies should be labeled, 'ABOSL'.

NOW, we're not picking on Dee: we're sure that after you read her story, you'll come to the conclusion that she's got her tongue in her cheek. She seems so pleasant in her comments to DBKP's stories, we're sure of it.

One item did strike us, Dee's quote that, "The odds of a first time pregnancy after 40 are astronomical."

From Older mothers - facts and figures:

Additionally, there is an almost 50% increase from ten years ago in the number of women over forty who are now having babies. The rate for women aged 40 and over increased fastest, by over six per cent from 11.5 per 1,000 women aged 40-44 in 2005, to 12.2 in 2006.

The number of live births in England and Wales to mothers aged 40 plus was 12,103 in 1996 and 23,706 in 2006.

Again, here's more info from the United Kingdom. From
Parenting: Age Of First Time Mothers Shows A Sharp Increase:

The number of women having children in their 30s and 40s has climbed steadily over the last 20 years at a time when the overall birth rate has been dropping, in 2003, the fertility rate for women aged 35-39 and over 40 both increased almost 8%.

Later pregnancies are particularly evident among the wealthier social classes, where women persue a career before embarking on motherhood. The only draw back to later parenting is that as a woman gets older their fertility declines.

We realize that the data's from the U.K., not the USA. And there's precious little data about the pregnancy rates of mistresses over 40, but perhaps this might make a good project for some enterprising blogger.

The poster pictured at the beginning of this story? It's not there exclusively in reference to Dee or the Mainstream Media.

It hangs on the side of a computer at DBKP.

by Mondoreb
image: wsmonty

John Edwards Affair: Mystery Editor Continues to Edit Rielle Hunter Wikipedia Page

Who is Editing Out Unpleasant Details From Wikipedia's Rielle Hunter entry?

Who is ALJDJDD?



Mystery Continues


While working on this morning's John Edwards Scandal: Who in the Edwards’ Campaign Ran the Cover Up? UPDATED, a note was received from DBKP's crack research department.

Our mystery Wikipedia editor came back just now And made these changes to the Rielle Hunter article. Basically removed all of the negative info about the father, inserted the father's birth year of 1934, and, most interestingly, cleaned up the info about Hunter's small film roles, deleting a reference to roles in the films Overboard and Deadly Addiction, but leaving the reference to the 1991 Denzel Washington film Ricochet.

One can only type one story at a time and this one got pushed back. In the meantime, about three hours ago, we were notified of another interesting development:

Catherine Yronwode had an interesting theory about our mystery WIkipedia editor that she explained here - that "ALJDJDD" may be an acronym for "Alias Lisa Jo Druck, James Druck's Daughter".

Among other things, yronwode posits a possible identity for the mystery editor:

User ALJDJDD, who claims in her edit summaries to be James Druck's daughter (ALJDJDD may be an acronym for "Alias Lisa Jo Druck, James Druck's Daughter"), has repeatedly deleted from the Rielle Hunter page all mention of James Druck's involvement in the horse-murder insurance fraud scheme, incluing the murder of Lisa's own horse, for which we have numerous reliable msm sources now. (Apparently ALJDJDD does not believe the confession of the FBI informer and horse-killer Tommy Burns, upon which all the sources are based, and prefers to think that her father is innocent of the crime or that no crime was committed.)

We have no proof that ALJDJDD is who she says she is (i.e. one of the four Druck daughters), but she has added a bunch of unsourced material, such as the year of James Druck's birth, the location where Lisa Jo Druk and Kip Hunter were married, and some IMDb-sourced data about Lisa Jo Hunter that we had previously overlooked due to the subject's several name changes.

We touched on the edits being made yesterday at the Rielle Hunter Wikipedia page, in "John Edwards Scandal: Rielle Hunter Editing Her Own Wikipedia Page - UPDATED".

[UPDATE NOTE 12:55 EDT - Our research indicates that "a closer look at the change made to the article by that user - in addition to deleting the information about the father, the editor changed the place of marriage to Kip Hunter from New York state to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Not sure if this is true or false."

We will see.]

We also got a note that Rielle Hunter, born Lisa Jo Druck, has three other sisters than Melissa, who asked John Edwards on Saturday to "Stop Bad-mouthing Rielle Hunter - UPDATED".

According to The Palm Beach Post (see the last paragraph).

So there are several suspects for editing the Wikipedia article. The article also explains the "convicted criminal" part of the edit summary you quoted in your article.

The Palm Beach article, "Dad of Edwards' mistress had dark side" recounts a grisly tale of horse execution, fraud, insurance money and prison sentences. It's not very complimentary; one can see why a family member might want this information edited out of Wikipedia.

"They loved money! All of them watching out for themselves."

That's the Florida family environment fallen presidential wannabe John Edwards' mistress grew up in. So says Jupiter commodities trader Steve Smith, a longtime live-in boyfriend of one of Rielle Hunter's three sisters.

The article quotes "Jupiter commodities trader Steve Smith, a longtime live-in boyfriend of one of Rielle Hunter's three sisters" [designer, Jennifer Druck].

The Palm Beach article cites Sports Illustrated as a source.

In a 1992 cover story, Sports Illustrated named Druck an early figure in a frightening trend: The killing of show horses and ponies for insurance money.

IS Rielle Hunter editing her own Wikipedia page? Or, is it another of the Druck sisters?

Again, time will tell.

by Mondoreb
image: wikipedia

John Edwards Scandal: Copying Continues As Rielle Hunter Web Info Keeps Vanish

Info Keep Disappearing
Readers Keep Copying





Simon Scowl, at Deceiver--that name's popping up quite frequently over the last month--reports on what's rapidly becoming a Deceiver specialty: disappearing websites with information about Rielle Hunter. [Yet Another Rielle-Related Site Vanishes].

Yesterday the Newark Star-Ledger tried to talk to Rielle Hunter’s old business partner Mimi Hockman (pictured), as I recommended somebody do almost two weeks ago. They approached Hockman at her home in New Jersey, but she wasn’t too cooperative. Which isn’t surprising at this point. Nor is this (emphasis mine):

Deceiver's work on another vanished website was part of our story on disappearing Rielle Hunter information as the start of the Edwards' campaign cover up, John Edwards Scandal: Who in the Edwards’ Campaign Ran the Cover Up? UPDATED.

Thankfully, it's harder for the information to vanish now: a small army of readers are now aware of the problem and are screen-saving, copying and downloading Net info before it disappears--including Deceiver readers and our own Research Dept.

We'll call it: The Forces of Darkness vs. The Forces of Light, Internet Rielle Hunter Info Division.

by Mondoreb
image: Deceiver

John Edwards Affair: December DBKP Montross Story Confirmed Yesterday

DougRoss@Journal, DBKP December stories Confirmed:

Eric Montross Angle Valid


"Come on, guys! I told you it was OK to write about it, but this is too much!"

[The following is published not to toot our own horn. Okay, okay--maybe a little. The impetus is to record where this information was first published; as well as how much time elapsed before a member of the traditional media confirmed it.]


Another part of the John Edwards story uncovered by bloggers was confirmed--almost eight months after it was first reported at DBKP and DougRoss@Journal.

The Raleigh Telegram--which didn't let readers in on the scandal until days ago, and which ran an editorial citing Edwards' "continuous denials" as a reason for its non-coverage--confirmed, in a pair of stories yesterday, that ex-NBA star, Eric Montross was indeed involved in the scandal--most likely, unknowingly.

Rielle Hunter Stayed In Chapel Hill Last Year and UNC's Montross Rented House To Edwards Worker both confirm that Andrew Young was staying in Montross' house--in the same Governor's Club gated community that the Enquirer reported that Rielle Hunter was staying.

Although it is not known by this newspaper who owned the house that Rielle was living in, it has been confirmed that Young was renting his house from former UNC basketball star Eric Montross.

Montross is well-known to Tarheel fans for being the star center of the UNC NCAA Championship team in 1993, before going on to a ten year professional career in the NBA.

[The Telegram's earlier "continuous denial" quote was one, among others, that prompted DBKP to write John Edwards Scandal: The Myth of the Edwards’ Denials on August 7--one day before John Edwards quit denying the affair. It seems that the Telegram was stung by taking Edwards' October denial of the affair--when it was deniable, since the Enquirer had published, at that point, only some unnamed sources about an unnamed "other woman"--at face value and has been busy making up for lost time.]

On December 27, DBKP published "John Edwards Scandal: Rielle Hunter Housed by Former NBA Player". It left details of a tip we'd received from someone describing themselves as, "someone who partied with Rielle in LA".

We'd hoped that by publishing the info, that it would excite the curiosity of just one reporter in the MSM--maybe who was also a sports fan.

But, it was a blogger, Doug Ross, who responded to our article within minutes [John Edwards Love Child Saga, the NBA and the MSM] with the name of Eric Montross.

Doug did some detective work--work that any MSM reporter could have done in December, as The Telegram proved just yesterday--and ran down Montross. As Ross related:

"Okay, so I was curious. Went to OpenSecrets and did a donor lookup."

The only ex-NBA player and heavy Edwards donor I found is Eric Montross, who is listed in Chapel Hill. That's not to say Montross is hosting Rielle, but if the DBKP story is accurate, he's someone for the MSM to check into.

As Doug Ross, DBKP and the rest of the world was to discover: no one in the MSM did check it--until The Telegram did.

Now, for the first time, we can tell a bit of the story behind our December 27 story.

We received a credible tip about Rielle Hunter living in Eric Montross' house at the Governor's Club. LBG, after about 10 hours digging, discovered in December much of what The Telegram published yesterday, and from many of the same sources. From yesterday's Telegram:

Young and his family rented the substantially large house at 32340 Archdale Drive owned by Montross and his wife in the Governor's Club subdivision. Montross actually lives in another house over the county line in Orange County, according to tax records.

An online newsletter for the Governor's Club community called "Ginny's Community" welcomed the Young family to the neighborhood and mentioned them by name along with their new address.

According to a real estate listing on the Chapel Hill Realty Group's website, Montross' house at 32340 Archdale Drive that Young rented was formerly up for sale at an asking price of $1,425,000, although according to Chatham County, the assessed tax value is $1,658,822. Although the property is listed as "sold" on the real estate website, the Chatham County records do not indicate that a sale took place and Montross has owned the house since 1993.

DBKP's efforts were redoubled on December 26-27 in an effort to locate exactly which house Rielle Hunter was living in. It wasn't known if the Youngs had relocated to another nearby house when Hunter appeared in the Governor's Club, or if, more likely, our tipster had some of the info right.

We just could not tell.

So, we left messages in the comments sections of several NC blogs--including one in the Chapel Hill, NC area--appealing for someone nearby to do some legwork. The comments and emails went largely unanswered.

The decision was made to publish our story the way we did. We knew from the Enquirer's December reports and LBG's digging that Hunter had been in the house at 32340 Archdale, but we couldn't say for sure she was living there. It was hoped that by posting something, it might excite a reporter in the Raleigh area to check the information out.

As it happens, that occurred--over eight months after our story and Doug Ross'--was published; after John Edwards' Nightline appearance green-lighted the Edwards scandal for the major press organizations. to cover.

ENTER RADAR



Several weeks ago, in the wake of the Enquirer's reporters' confrontation with Edwards at the Beverly Hilton, interest in the Montross angle was renewed. On July 31, Radar published John Edwards’ Money Man: Fellow Tar Heel Eric Montross?. In the story, Radar took a look back at Ross' and DBKP's stories seven months earlier:

In a follow-up story published on December 19, the Enquirer reported that after word of the affair got out, Hunter moved into a home owned by an Edwards supporter in the exclusive Governors Club, a gated community less than five miles away from the Edwards HQ in Chapel Hill and only a few blocks away from the Young residence.

Here's where things get weird: five days later, a right-wing blog called Death By 100 Papercuts received a tip that the house Hunter had moved into was owned by a former NBA player who had contributed money to the Edwards campaign. Doing some digging, Doug Ross reported that the only former NBA player who had donated money to Edwards was Eric Montross, a UNC graduate who was drafted by the Boston Celtics back in 1994 and ended his NBA career in 2003. Montross gave $4,600 to Edwards during the 2008 election cycle; he was described as a "big backer of John Edwards' White House bid" by CNN. (Edwards went to UNC law school.)

We took note of the Radar reference in John Edwards Scandal: Birth Certificates, NBA Players and the Waking of the MSM the same day.

Less than a week later, Radar seemed to be backpedaling, however [Eric Montross Would Like You to Know He's Never Met Rielle Hunter, Thank You Very Much]. Radar then said:

Last week, we culled together some thinly sourced material from around the Internet and posted an (admittedly) wildly speculative theory about how Tar Heel and former professional basketball player Eric Montross was the guy paying off both John Edwards' alleged mistress Rielle Hunter as well as Andrew Young, the professed father of Hunter's (Edwards?) kid. Which would be news to Eric Montross! "I don't have anything to do with this," Montross told Radar by phone. "Whatever is going on with Edwards, I can tell you unequivocally that I am uninvolved."

Both Doug Ross and DBKP were relegated to the ranks of the "thinly-sourced". A letter was dispatched to Radar detailing how Montross' name had come to be connected with the scandal, along with the observation that DBKP "believed Montross didn't know Rielle Hunter".

Today, Radar commented on the Raleigh Telegram story with some interesting observations: [Eric Montross Back in the Picture!]

A little while ago, we floated an admittedly crazy theory that former NBA player, UNC alum, and John Edwards supporter Eric Montross not only owned the Chapel Hill house Rielle Hunter was reportedly staying in after Edwards knocked her up, but also that Montross might have been the mystery man paying off both Hunter and professed baby daddy Andrew Young. Montross vehemently denied having anything to do with anyone involved in the scandal ("I am 100 percent detached," he said), and soon after Texas lawyer Fred Baron was outed as the money man, and we assumed that was that. But it turns out Montross isn't totally insulated from the whole scandal: the Raleigh Telegram is now reporting that Montross rented a house he owned in the exclusive Governor's Club development to none other than Andrew Young—and that the house was just a few blocks away from a home Hunter herself was living in.

Granted, that doesn't mean Montross knew anything other than that his tenant had a crazy chick for a neighbor (it's still unclear who rented Hunter her home), but it's not like Young found him off of Craigslist. How much John Edwards actually told him is anyone's guess. The Telegram also corroborates an earlier story from the Enquirer in which it was reported that Hunter was an occasional dinner guest at her neighbor Young's house. (Young is married with kids.) Given that it's not exactly common practice to have the woman you've supposedly had an out-of-wedlock child with over for supper, the most logical conclusion to draw is that Young—surprise!—isn't the father of Hunter's kid.

We're just hoping all this gets us out of that "thinly-sourced" category.


[This past Thursday, DBKP and Doug Ross again collaborated to beat the MSM to the punch on the Fred Baron story: John Edwards Scandal: Is Fred Baron the Enquirer ‘Hush Money Man’? and [Rumors Run Wild: Is Fred Baron the Wallet for John Edwards Scandal. The next day, Fred Baron began releasing his statements that he was involved in moving Rielle Hunter around the country.

Doug Ross was emailed in the early afternoon with our info; but was away at the time. In the meantime, a Radar commenter had posited the names of both Baron and ex-Dallas Mavericks coach, Don Nelson.]


DBKP knew Rielle Hunter had been in Eric Montross' house back in December: either as a guest or a lodger. Then, there was no way of knowing the particulars. Today, it's still not known if Eric Montross knew about it; in all probability, he didn't.

We're only happy that aspects of our stories were finally confirmed.

We just wonder what took so long for someone else to "get some feet on the ground" to check them out.


by Mondoreb
images: dbkp file; Radar

John Edwards Scandal: Who in the Edwards' Campaign Was in Charge of the Cover Up?

Who in the John Edwards Campaign Started the Rielle Hunter Cover Up?

Who Began the Attempt to Scrub the Web Clean of Rielle Hunter References?



Another Mystery for the Late-charging Media


Who in the John Edwards' campaign started the cover up of Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter? It was an operation that costs millions and involved a web of schemes that are still unraveling. It's a question the Mainstream Media hasn't asked yet, but it has to be on the agenda, now that they're finally covering the story.

The cover up began with erasing information about Hunter from the Internet; progressed later to moving Hunter from the NYC area to North Carolina within five miles of the Edwards campaign headquarters and setting her up in houses owned by Edwards' backers; and, at one point involved millionaire trial lawyer, Fred Baron, and the revelations that millions were spent jetting Hunter and Edwards' campaign operative--and fall guy--across the country to reside in multi-million dollar houses.

Hunter and Young, according to reports, have also been receiving hush money payments to keep their mouths shut.

Who initiated all of this? Where did that money come from?

[More background and Edwards scandal information: Over 80 stories since December on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Scandal and Cover up at DBKP in the John Edwards Love Child Library.]

John Edwards said he was unaware of any attempts to hide his affair with Hunter.

So did friend and big backer, Fred Baron, according to his statement: Baron was just helping out old friend friends and John Edwards didn't know about it. In light of the flood of information now coming out, Edwards' claims haven't held up very well. It's likely that Baron's statements will also have a hard time standing up under the increased scrutiny.

Hunter and Young aren't talking--yet.

Prediction: Andrew Young will be the first to crack. As a one-time Edwards campaign Director of Finance, he's on the hook for many of the improprieties--and he's likely, at some point, to be reminded of this unpleasant fact. In fact, the Equirer reported in December that Young vehemently denied that campaign money was being used for Hunter expenses. Doug Ross pointed out at the time, "What an odd denial! Who accused Young of funneling campaign funds to support Rielle in the first place? I wonder if any member of our crack mainstream media will bother to check into this interesting thread?"

Ross asked that question on December 27. It remained rhetorical in nature until eight months later.

DBKP's crack research department turned in a memo which made us drop all other items and get cracking on this story.

...went back and read Sam Stein's piece in the HuffPo about the missing campaign videos from Sep 27th of last year. Nobody in the MSM seems to be questioning the timeline on this aspect of the coverup. Stein published his piece reporting that the videos had been pulled two weeks before the Enquirer broke the affair story, and was getting the runaround from Jonathan Prince at the Edwards campaign with some bullshit about campaign finance law. Plus other people from the Edwards campaign were telling the worker bees at Midline Groove Productions to shut the hell up about the Hunter videos, according to Stein.

I guess one possible explanation is that the Enquirer was maybe already asking the campaign questions about Hunter before Stein published his story on 27 Sept, which got them antsy about the whole thing.

Which started a search through DBKP's John Edwards archives. We've been reporting since December on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair and the twin real scandals: the Edwards' campaign cover up and the Mainstream Media blackout, which included a failure to investigate hard facts unearthed by the National Enquirer.

We'll deal with the media scandal another day.

References to Make Any Campaign Nervous



The scrubbing clean of all references to Rielle Hunter obviously began before Stein's piece, which came out at Huffington Post on September 26, 2007. Her "webisode" videos disappeared before the Stein story appeared. Stein relates some of the difficulties he'd encountered tracking down these videos from the people involved in making them.

Who else was involved? Credits from the webisode still on the Business Week site listed three additional production assistants. One of them, Sam Cullman, said he could not talk to me but lauded Edwards for his openness. Another assistant, Nick Chatfield, said on the first call to my editor that he wished the movies were available because he could use the publicity. On the second call (having evidently checked back with Hunter or the Edwards campaign), Chatfield said, "Don't call me again."

He also wrote about the stonewall he'd run into with the Edwards campaign.

Jonathan Prince offered to let me and my editor, Tom Edsall, watch the videos - apparently unaware that at one point his campaign claimed not to have access to them. But there was a proviso: we could only view the videos in Prince's presence.

When did the Rielle Hunter web cover up begin? The Edwards' campaign had to be as nervous as Don King in a barber shop when they saw the New York Post's now-famous blind item on August 27, 2007: [Last reported in John Edwards Scandal: Sister Asks Edwards to Stop Bad-mouthing Rielle Hunter - UPDATED"]

"WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture."

DBKP speculated months ago--correctly, it turns out--that the Post could have only been referring to John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. The Post confirmed this on August 9, 2008 in EDWARDS BLIND NO MORE.

WE hate to say we told you so, and we normally never reveal the identities in our blind items, but in light of John Edwards' finally admitting he had an extramarital affair, we bring your attention to our "Just asking" item of Aug. 27, 2007...

Our best guess is that the Edwards campaign then got busy and was just one step ahead of Sam Stein. The webisodes disappeared, as did other Hunter info at the NY Screen Actors Guild.

But, in July, the Enquirer Editor-in-Chief, David Perel, referred to the Enquirer's "one-year" investigation [John Edwards Affair: Interview with David Perel, Editor-in-Chief of the National Enquirer, among others]. So, the Edwards camp most likely knew that questions were being asked about Hunter and her involvement with the campaign, before the Post piece appeared on August 27, 2007.

The Helpful Hand of the Disgruntled Employee

The DBKP Research Dept. weighs in again:

I'm also curious about who the YouTube user "MissingVideos" is. As you may have seen, HuffPo reported that, on Sep 27, the same day that Stein published his HuffPo piece [Note: actually a day later], a user named "MissingVideos" reposted the videos with the description "Before he was running for President, John Edwards made a series of awesome short documetaries (sic) that later vanished from the internet...until now." My gut tells me it was likely a disgruntled employee of Midline Groove.

Though the Edwards campaign was hustling to cover up, someone was helping thwart their efforts. Might that helping hand have come from Midline Groove's Nick Chatfield? Chatfield had at first wanted to talk to Stein--"he could use the publicity", remember?--and later, mysteriously at the time, clammed up.

NOTE to aspiring investigative MSM reporters: find Nick Chatfield before the campaign does and explore this possibility.

Oh, and remember where you heard it first.

Perhaps it was Nick Chatfield who also alerted Gawker in September 2007 with an email:

John Edwards is cheating on his wife.

This news must be revealed.

There was a blind item in Page Six recently… however:

My sources come from inside J.E’s little production group that was following him around to create “webisodes.”

There is a producer girl in that group (who lives in NYC) who John E. was - obvious to all - “close to.”

Mrs. Edwards was calling around in the group of production types - to try to get the number of this girl. (Perhaps to try to put a stop to the shenanigans.)

I could tell you my source but I don’t want to rat her out. She’s in that circle. She was there two times when Mrs. Edwards called.

I knew of this long before I saw the recent blind item in the post. (Page 6).

Therefore people know about it, and therefore you have a story to expose…

To those who point out that the email above refers to "her" as the source, Chatfield might have taken the elementary effort to conceal who he was. After all, he didn't know whether Gawker would print the email or not. CYA was in effect for more than just the Edwards' campaign.

Gawker apparently didn't print the email at that time--it was published a few days ago by ex-Gawker writer, Doree Shafrir, in "How Rumors Get Started".

The Edwards campaign had to be feeling the heat at that point and picked up their cover up activities. At about the same time, Hunter's "Being is Free" website disappeared.



In late July, Simon Scowl, of Deceiver, discovered a mirror site for the lost Hunter info.

(Note: As of 8/2, the site I discuss in this post has been replaced with a page that simply says “Blocked Site Error.” As for who’s blocking it, we can only guess.)

Looks like there are two Americas: the America where not-John-Edwards’-babymama Rielle Hunter has erased her web site from existence, and the America where someone else has put it right back up.*

The information on the mirror site later disappeared, as recounted by Deceiver.


WHODUNNIT?

Who oversaw the cover up, which was initiated by a disappearance of Rielle Hunter info from the web?

Was it Rielle Hunter, trying to "help out" the Edwards' campaign?

Was it Edwards campaign strategist, Joe Trippi?

Or, was it Jonathan Prince, Edwards' Deputy Campaign Manager, who told Stein that the he didn't have access to the Hunter videos, only to unwittingly admit later that he did?

Again, we asked our research department for opinions--in light of their intrepid digging.

Was it Prince?

Prince, the deputy campaign manager, already knew something wasn't right with Edwards and Hunter, and was actively covering up her involvement with the campaign before the Enquirer published anything. And I doubt that he personally was maintaining the campaign website, so other people knew something was going on.

Or Trippi?

I read the transcript of Joe Trippi's interview with Larry King. The transcript is here, and here is the video. Trippi came on board with the Edwards campaign in April 2007. He said he was "stunned" when Edwards confessed to the affair. I think Trippi is full of shit - there's no way, as campaign manager, that he didn't know about this when there was an active cover-up going on with the Hunter videos and Prince, his deputy, was giving the runaround to the press. If he had no idea about this, he would have to be the most incompetent figurehead of a campaign manager that ever lived - and he's not, Trippi is a professional, no matter what you think of his politics - he made Howard Dean.

Along the way, this interesting item, was uncovered:

"Interesting bit of trivia - did you know Trippi also worked for the Gary Hart campaign as deputy political director? After Hart got busted with Donna Rice, he became chief of staff to Hart's wife. Now he's out defending Elizabeth Edwards."

DBKP doesn't know who in the Edwards' campaign started a cover up operation that started with info disappearing on the Net and ended with Hunter and campaign operative, Andrew Young and his family, being jetted around the country on Fred Baron's jet, one step ahead of the Enquirer.

Since December, we've just been making observations and asking the questions no one in the MSM wouldn't.

Stein made a keen observation back in September 07:

"Not lost in the matter is the irony of Edwards' stance. After all, the videos were made with the apparent goal of bringing transparency to the political process."

We've said it before:

"It's ironic that the Edwards campaign webisodes made by Rielle Hunter, initially produced to bring the campaign publicity, made their biggest splash when the campaign attempted to hide them."



DBKP will be coming out with a story later today that began in December and was just confirmed by the MSM yesterday.


The Buzz

Media Matters: FLASH! Rush Limbaugh has an opinion on the Edwards' affair!

Media Matters is upset that Rush Limbaugh voices an opinion on his opinion/talk show.

On the August 12 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said of former Sen. John Edwards' recent disclosure of an extramarital affair: "I've got a theory about the motivations. Well, I don't know that I could -- I don't know that I can put this one on the air." Discussing his "theory," Limbaugh said, "We know -- we've been told that Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards. That's part of the puff pieces on them that we've seen. Ergo, if Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards, is it likely that she thinks she knows better than he does what his speeches ought to contain and what kind of things he ought to be doing strategy-wise in the campaign? If she is smarter than he is, could it have been her decision to keep going with the campaign? In other words, could it be that she doesn't shut up? Now, that's as far as I'm going to go." Limbaugh later added, "It just seems to me that Edwards might be attracted to a woman whose mouth did something other than talk."

MM also provided a link to Limbaugh's website--which arguably, is the biggest service they've provided their readers since the Clinton "media watchdog" began operations.

It would be an interesting--though one suspects, fruitless--trip through the Media Matters archives to see what the "watchdogs" were watching while the Mainstream Media was blacking out the Edwards scandal for nine months. But, that's a job for another day at DBKP.

Meanwhile, we'll make an observation: the Media Matters "watchdogs" weren't barking about the Edwards scandal and the media non-coverage. All their barking is reserved for Limbaugh--whom they've targeted--when he comments on what they wouldn't for nine months.

by Mondoreb
images:
* pro corbis
* deceiver
* dbkp file

John Edwards Scandal: Enquirer Releases Proof Edwards Lied on Nightline

The National Enquirer releases more information that pounds more nails into the political coffin of John Edwards.



The National Enquirer has released more details that prove John Edwards was lying to viewers on his Nightline appearance last week on ABC.

Including this interesting point, "Edwards claimed he ended the affair in 2006, but sources say he restarted the illicit romance after confessing to his wife. Rielle soon became pregnant after the affair was rekindled, say sources."

UPDATES to follow at end of story.
UPDATE #1 - working

But wait! There's more:

Edwards' headline-making admission confirmed The ENQUIRER's blockbuster world exclusive reports detailing his affair, in articles Edwards brazenly called "completely untrue" and "tabloid trash" while running for president and afterward.

And now The ENQUIRER has uncovered that Edwards' political operatives are still paying his mistress Rielle Hunter - and she was whisked away on a private jet two days before he confessed their extramarital affair on national TV!

The ENQUIRER has also confirmed that Edwards secretly visited Rielle and their love child three separate times at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles this year - a fact that proves he is still lying to America and his wife.

ENQUIRER reporters caught Edwards, 55, making a late-night visit to 44-year-old Rielle and their daughter at the hotel on July 21 - which prompted us to release the first-ever photograph of him with his love child last week.

Other details released by the Enquirer include the following hard-for-Edwards-to-parse items:

* After Edwards confessed the affair to his wife, he restarted it, and was sexually involved with Rielle when she became pregnant.

* Despite his denials, Edwards WAS aware that his former finance committee chairman, Fred Baron, was funneling money to Rielle.

Experts are now calling for a federal investigation into Edwards' use of campaign funds.

* Edwards told ABC the affair was limited to 2006, before he confessed "the mistake" to wife Elizabeth, 59, who is battling a recurrence of breast cancer.

* The ongoing ENQUIRER investigation has also confirmed that he has been with Rielle and the baby three times this year in California.

In denying he fathered Rielle's baby, Edwards told ABC that he would "be happy" to take a paternity test to prove he's telling the truth. (He has refused numerous previous requests by The ENQUIRER to take a paternity test.)

As we stated last week, there's more baby shoes to drop in the Enquirer's shoebox.

by Mondoreb