Former Democrat White House candidate, John Edwards, was indicted today by a federal court after he spent campaign funds worth over 900,000 dollars to support his mistress, reports British newspaper The Guardian.
The indictment contains six counts on Edwards’ name, including making false statements. The former presidential candidate would have spent funds from two wealthy donors to pay for his mistress Rielle Hunter home, with whom he has a child.
The prosecutor explained that Edwards used the money to keep his mistress away from the public eye, provided he has centered his 2008 election campaign on the image of a devoted family man. “He knew that the disclosure of his extramarital relationship and especially the pregnancy of his mistress would have destroyed his chances of being elected”, he said in the indictment.
His career as a lawyer, questioned
An arrest warrant was issued on Edwards’ name by a court in the city of Greensboro, North Carolina, where he installed his Democratic campaign headquarters. Edwards’ lawyers have negotiated in vain with the authorities before a count for their client to plead guilty. The politician is concerned that, if found guilty, he will lose the right to practice law.
ABC noted a few days ago that the action against Edwards is based on Andrew Young’s testimony, Edwards’s former collaborator that initially claimed that he is the father of the child so that Edwards continued to campaign for the 2008 presidential election.
John Edwards, 57 years old, acknowledged the existence of his extramarital relationship in August that year, but only in 2010 admitted that he has a child with Rielle Hunter.
Edwards’s wife, Elizabeth Edwards, a character who enjoyed great popularity among American leftists and who died in the meantime, learned of her husband’s affair in 2006 while she was suffering from cancer. She played an active role in the campaign of John Edwards in 2008.