Update on the “John Edwards’ Love Child Post”
[Guest post by DRJ]
I am as reluctant to post on this subject as Patterico was in his obligatory post. Nevertheless, the National Enquirer just won’t let this story go and I can’t either.
The National Enquirer reports that payments of $15,000 a month were made to Rielle Hunter and unspecified amounts to Andrew Young, an Edwards’ supporter/aide who claimed he is the father of Rielle Hunter’s daughter. The payments were allegedly made by a person tied to the Edwards’ campaign:
“The money is being funneled to Hunter by a wealthy colleague who was closely tied to the Edwards’ campaign. This same man is also shoveling cash to Edwards’ pal and former aide Andrew Young – who tried to take the heat off the ex-Senator by claiming he is the father of Rielle’s baby.
***
“A super-rich pal – who was closely involved with the campaign finances – is helping John. It’s likely this man doesn’t know all the dirty details of John’s extramarital affair, but is acting out of loyalty and is not asking a lot of questions – only writing the checks,” revealed a source very close to the situation.”
John Edwards still declines to comment, citing the source.
— DRJ
Aren’t there tax ramifications of this shifting money? If the IRS had any stones, they’d look into this. (They would if Clinton was still in charge, and the involved were Republicans.)
ManlyDad (75cbfe) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:10 pmAce has been all over this. Here’s the latest.
Old Coot (cb828a) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:24 pmPopcorn futures going crazy.
Bad link, try this.
Old Coot (cb828a) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:25 pmMcClatchy is now got a story up on it in the Charlotte Observer — they pulled the birth certificate for the baby and noted that there is no father listed, even though the date of birth was two months after the Edwards’ aide claimed he was the father.
So, don’t feel like you’re simply parroting the Enquirer.
WLS (26b1e5) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:26 pmAmusingly, wasn’t a Clinton administration prosecuted or almost prosecuted about lying to investigators about payoffs to an ex mistress?
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:33 pmYes, wasn’t that the ex-Mayor of San Antonio?
Another Drew (a28ef4) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:46 pmIt smell a trap. These scoundrels are to sophisticated to get caught this easily, aren’t they?
j curtis (c84b9e) — 7/31/2008 @ 6:51 pmI wonder if the guy is filing a 1099 for Andrew Young.
Could be an interesting tax question for his 2008 return.
WLS (26b1e5) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:11 pmI think Andrew Young is from Atlanta. Henry Cisneros is the former Mayor of San Antonio.
DRJ (e4b6ac) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:14 pmObligatory LA Times note: As far as I can tell, the LA Times still isn’t writing about this.
DRJ (e4b6ac) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:15 pmAndrew Young is also the name of the Edward’s aide who claimed to be the father’s child.
WLS (26b1e5) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:19 pmCisneros was who I was thinking of.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:21 pmI always thought the Andrew Young who was the Mayor of Atlanta and Edwards’ supporter is also the Andrew Young who claimed to be the father of Rielle’s child. Am I mistaken?
If I’m correct, I wouldn’t call Andrew Young an aide. He’s more a contemporary and supporter of Edwards.
DRJ (e4b6ac) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:31 pmI think I’m wrong and it’s a different, younger Andrew Young.
DRJ (e4b6ac) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:36 pmI’m guessing here … and it is a guess … that there would be some visual clue that the Andrew Young of ex-Atlanta fame couldn’t be the father faux or otherwise.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:43 pmAt least my mistakes prove how not racist I am … plus genetics isn’t as predictable as we think.
DRJ (e4b6ac) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:51 pmHere’s how you know this is crap. A news source with any ounce of credibility would not report this unless they had credible information that payments were coming from a named person. “Super-rich pal” is crap.
Also, former aide Andrew Young is married and has children. I can see an aide or even a former aide taking a bullet for a current President or even a current candidate by claiming a child who is not his as his own if they were particularly insanely zealous and partisan, but I can’t see anyone subjecting themselves to the possibility of divorce and 18 years of child support to a failed candidate with an uncertain and bleak political future.
Finally, John Edwards doesn’t need a “super-rich pal” to cover up for him, especially one who supposedly isn’t asking a lot of questions. Isn’t the knock on Edwards that he’s so super-rich himself that his ideas about improving the lot of the poor were inherently suspect?
It’s the freaking Enquirer people. No credible news source is backing up the claims about a love child, and unsourced reports about unnamed super-rich pals coming from the Enquirer does not make it any more credible.
Why was Edwards there in the hotel then? I still stick by my story that he was buying heroin. And I have an unnamed source closely connected to Edwards’ former campaign who tells me a “super-junkie” pal is paying for it. Why do you keep citing strangers from the Enquirer on this blog when I am right here and giving you the scoop with just as much credibility?
Aplomb (b6fba6) — 7/31/2008 @ 7:56 pmWhat makes you think Andrew Young would have to get a divorce for pretending to be the daddy? If his wife didn’t kick him out of the house when he invited Rielle Hunter over for dinner, why would she now? Either she’s in on it or she’s a saint.
I can’t think of any reason why Edwards would need somebody else to front the money, except maybe plausible deniability. Hey wait, that’s actually a pretty good reason.
Jim Treacher (592cb4) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:03 pmNow that’s funny.
Pablo (99243e) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:11 pmAplomb – You’re right to question the Enquirer, as they’re not exactly the shining beacon of journalistic integrity.
Unfortunately, either is the NY Times.
As for naming the source: “super-rich pal’s” have super rich law firms that can do some damage if a publication commits libel.
So, for my mind, I’m fine waiting. If it’s Edwards’ baby, then you’d expect Hunter to want to end up with Edwards and not Young. Time’s on our side on this one, and Edwards isn’t going anywhere.
Apogee (366e8b) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:18 pmAplomb,
If Edwards is in fact the father:
1) The former aide is not endangering his marriage by claiming to be the father, if his wife knows it’s a lie, and she has agreed to the deception. This would also seem more likely than not given that the mother moved into his neighborhood and dined with his family. He also has little risk of incurring 18 years of child support; unless he enters into a court agreement to take on paternal responsibility, a DNA test would clear him from such responsibility.
2) Edwards would need the rich pal because Edwards would not wish to be caught sending $15,000 monthly checks to the mother of his child directly, or by normal commercial methods.
DWPittelli (96e600) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:19 pmOh, and Aplomb, I read that it’s Edwards and Young who were at the hotel together, and that Hunter’s baby was their heroin dealer. At least that’s what it says in the Weekly World News, right after the article on the aliens that ride great white sharks.
Apogee (366e8b) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:21 pm#19 so why aren’t the DEA or ATF investigating The silk pony for possession, use and distribution of heroin? Can’t anyone get a quote from the missus? She was quick to show up on talk radio to ambush Coulter for calling studmeister Edwards a fa**ot.
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:25 pmDWP: If someone steps forward announcing they are the father, and the mother agrees, there is no DNA test. And if someone steps forward announcing he is the father knowing a DNA test will clear it all up later, he is committing perjury in the family court proceedings, or at least ruining his credibility forever. Why would anyone boldly lie about extramarital paternity if they expected DNA evidence to implicate Edwards eventually anyway, when right now Edwards’ career is dead in the water? Who benefits there, when the implicated parties understand it will all come out anyway, when Edwards isn’t in office and isn’t running for one?
Also, Edwards can easily send the mother $15,000 a month if he wanted to, outside of “normal commercial methods.” If the conspiracy is so deep he has gotten an unaccountably loyal former aide to claim paternity, I doubt he wouldn’t scruple against sending that money out of his normal household pin fund if he had to. I’ll be the first to admit the guy is rich as hell, all the money he has flying around every month is more than enough to hide $15,000.
Aplomb (b6fba6) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:33 pmYou don’t think Edwards was angling for VP? Heh.
Jim Treacher (592cb4) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:49 pm“And if someone steps forward announcing he is the father knowing a DNA test will clear it all up later,”
Hence no father named on the birth certificate.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 7/31/2008 @ 8:54 pmLet’s all not worry about this until we get some petty little details knowns as facts, eh?
I’m just sayin’…
Casey (9ee427) — 7/31/2008 @ 11:46 pmAh, but there is no court case and Young hasn’t said it under oath. So that just makes him a Democrat.
Pablo (99243e) — 8/1/2008 @ 1:52 amMoney. $15K a month goes a long way toward anyone asking for the DNA test. And Edwards was still in the hunt when all of this broke.
Pablo (99243e) — 8/1/2008 @ 1:54 amHow about the exact date, time, and location that John Edwards was in a room for five hours with a woman he’s denied having an affair with? Just minor little details like that.
Jim Treacher (592cb4) — 8/1/2008 @ 7:26 am#16 – DRJ
At least my mistakes prove how not racist I am
— No, the racist would be former Mayor Andrew “I made disparaging remarks against non-African-American minorities as spokesman for Wal Mart” Young.
BTW, with all due respect, you thinking that the 76-year-old former mayor was the person in question brought a huge grin to me face.
Icy Truth (64b9c8) — 8/1/2008 @ 7:43 amwell now that he has admitted both the affair and the hotel meeting he has only one thing left to admit, the child, the details around Young’s family living situation and Hunter’s are just too strange and where is the money coming from?
Edwards should have just come clean all at once, and that poor kid, not to mention Mrs. Edwards and kids
bizbach (1263b8) — 8/8/2008 @ 2:36 pm