Hunter-Edwards affair and coverup timeline

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2006
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Late December 2005/Early January 2006 – According to Sam Stein of Huffington Post, Edwards and Hunter first met in a hotel restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Elizabeth Edwards will say in May 2009, that the first night they met, her husband slept with Rielle Hunter; Hunter’s friends said the same in 2008. John Edwards, on the other hand, claimed the affair took place after Hunter was hired to produce webisodes.

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Late February/Early March 2006 – Hunter’s friend at the time, music publicist, and former community editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Virginia “Pigeon” O’Brien claims to have been told directly by Hunter that she was involved with a “John from North Carolina” who was married to a woman who had been seriously ill. O’Brien would tell ABC News in August 2008, Hunter wasn’t hired to produce webisode documentaries for almost another six months.

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March 2006 – According to O’Brien, Hunter visits “John from North Carolina” in North Carolina.

Sam Stein of Huffington Post dates this trip as early April 2006. In emails to friends she says he is a married man and describes her lover as “Love Lips.”

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June 30, 2006 – Rielle Hunter and partner Mimi Hockman form Midline Groove, a video production company, incorporating in Delaware.

At some point after this, after she was hired, is when Edwards later claimed a one-time lapse of infidelity with Hunter, at a time his wife’s cancer was in remission. In August 2008, Hunter’s friend, Pigeon O’Brien told ABC News the affair had started almost six months before the hiring.

Rielle tells Jonathan Darman of Newsweek in November 2006, that she had traveled with Edwards for five months on the webisode project. In a 2007 interview on Extra, she says it was six months of travel.

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July 2006 – Rielle Hunter is living in South Orange, New Jersey with friend and business partner, Mimi Hockman.

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July 5, 2006 – Midline Groove receives first payment from Edwards PAC, One America Committee for webisode project in amount of $12,500. Ultimately the committee paid over $114,000 for the webisodes over the course of nine months, with a final payment on April 1, 2007 of $14,086.

In August 2008, Roger Friedman of Fox News will cite a source close to Midline Groove who claims the payment of $14,000 to Rielle Hunter in April 2007 was not for unused webisode footage, all of which had been turned over to the Edwards campaign in February 2007. In addition, the payment did not appear in Midline Groove’s bank records.

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July 7, 2006 – Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman witnesses Hunter flirting with Edwards on plane to DesMoines, Iowa, but does not suspect affair. He is told by Edwards press secretary that she is working on a campaign documentary. Hunter and Edwards ride in a car together between events, Darman says.

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Summer/Fall 2006 – Hunter tapes Edwards’ trips to:

Iowa – Education speech – 7/7/06

Pittsburgh PA – Walmart rally – 8/4/06

Uganda – five-day poverty tour – Late September-Early October 2006

New York City – Daily Show appearance – 11/14/06

New Orleans announcement – 12/28/06

New Hampshire – 12/29/06

Reno, Nevada – 12/29/06

Chapel Hill rally – 12/30/06

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August 2, 2006 – First webisode taped: “Plane Truth”

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August 4, 2006 – Second webisode taped: “Golden Rule” – in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Fall 2006 – High command of Edwards campaign getting disturbing reports from road staff about behavior of Edwards and Hunter.

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Late September-Early October 2006 – “Plight of Uganda” webisode taped in Kitgum, Uganda.

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Early October 2006 – Edwards and Hunter return from Africa. 2004 campaign manager Peter Scher confronts Edwards who denies having affair. Scher doesn’t believe it and leaves 2008 campaign, as do others from 2004 team.

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October 2006 – Ladies Home Journal luncheon. Elizabeth claims better choices have made her happier than Hillary Clinton, “more joyful.” A week later says she was misquoted, but Ladies Home Journal stands by transcript.

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October 2006 – Rielle Hunter registers to vote from South Orange, New Jersey address of house owned by Mimi Hockman.

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November 14, 2006 – Fourth webisode, “The Plug,” is taped in New York City and airs on “The Daily Show.”

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November 2006 – Rielle Hunter and Jonathan Darman of Newsweek meet for lunch in New York, Aqua Grill in Soho, week before Thanksgiving. She says she has been traveling with Edwards for the five months on the webisode project and she’d met Elizabeth Edwards only once in that time. Darman told her, if she let him see the films, there was a possible story in it, and this was published December 25, 2006.

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December 17, 2006 – In a short tech piece in January 2007, about online video, Business Week mentions that Edwards announced his campaign today via YouTube ten days ahead of official announcement on December 27, 2006. They post one of Hunter’s webisodes to the Business Week website.

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December 25, 2006 – Jonathan Darman publishes a brief article, “John Edwards, Untucked” in Newsweek. He previews the upcoming launch of the webisodes on One America’s website. A few weeks after this, Rielle told him she had been fired by the Edwards campaign and blamed Elizabeth.

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December 28, 2006 – John Edwards announces his candidacy in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hunter is present; Elizabeth Edwards is not. A “California friend” tells the National Enquirer in 2008 Rielle had said she felt like she was his First Lady at the event. Edwards later claims in an ABC interview in August 2008, the affair with Hunter had ended before this announcement.

Remarkable number of senior staff of 2004 campaign have removed themselves from 2008 campaign and some will later say it was because of affair.

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December 29, 2006 – Hunter tapes a rally in New Hampshire and flies from there with Edwards to Reno, Nevada.

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December 30, 2006 – According to Elizabeth Edwards, in her May 2009 interview with Oprah, Edwards confessed to her that he had had one-time sex with Rielle Hunter. According to the August 13, 2008 National Enquirer: Elizabeth Edwards learned of affair from a campaign worker who walked in on Edwards and Hunter in a hotel room in 2006. Elizabeth confronted her husband and then he confessed to a one-time indiscretion.

In August 2008, an Edwards campaign source of Fox News claimed to have known of the affair during the time Hunter worked with the campaign.

More campaign staff say they didn’t suspect for another year, December 2007/January 2008. Doomsday strategy to sabotage Edwards campaign if it looked like he might win the nomination.

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December 30, 2006 – Rielle Hunter attends Edwards rally in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, meeting Elizabeth Edwards for what EE says in 2009, was the only time. This is also the day she says John confessed to one-time infidelity.

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December 31, 2006 – One America Committee’s contract with video production company, Midline Groove, is terminated. Hunter later tells Darman she was fired because of Elizabeth.

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2007
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January 2007 – Launch of webisodes online.

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Early 2007 – Rielle Hunter appears in television interview on Extra (clips), discussing John Edwards and webisode project.
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March 22, 2007 – Elizabeth and John Edwards hold press conference announcing her cancer has recurred, but they will continue with campaign for presidential nomination.

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April 1, 2007 – One America Committee, with $7,932 at hand, pays out $14,086 to Midline for remainder of webisode footage. The same day, One America Committee takes in $14,035 from the presidential campaign; shown in FEC reports as office furniture. The only donations to One America Committee for the first quarter of 2007 totaled $18,000 from Fred Baron’s wife and three other donors.

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May 2007 – Hunter’s child, Frances Quinn Hunter, born February 2008, is conceived around this time. As reported in August 2008, Hunter tells friends that John did not want her to have an abortion.

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Early Summer 2007 – Jonathan Darman of Newsweek asks Rielle if she is dating anyone. She says she is “in love,” but says she can’t tell him who.

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Summer 2007 – The Edwardses renew their wedding vows on their 30th anniversary.

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August 2007 – Andrew and Cheri Young move into Governors Club gated community in Chapel Hill, North Carolina having sold their house in Raleigh.

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August 27, 2007 – New York Post Page Six prints blind item about a presidential candidate having trysts with a woman in downtown Manhattan, who he plans to marry once his wife is out of the picture.

A year later, confirms Hunter and Edwards identities in blind item.

Pigeon O’Brien denies she is the Page Six tipster.

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September 2007 – Anonymous tip comes into National Enquirer hot line saying Edwards was having an affair with Hunter.

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September 2007 – Anonymous tip comes into Gawker by email. Claims Elizabeth Edwards had been calling Midline Groove looking for Rielle Hunter. No knowing when this occurred, but note, “Perhaps to try to put a stop to the shenanigans.” Could indicate when EE learned of affair or continuation of affair.

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September 26, 2007 – By this time, the webisodes have been removed from the Web and so has Hunter’s personal website, beingisfree.org. Sam Stein of Huffington Post writes a detailed article about his efforts to view the webisodes and the campaign’s resistance. Midline Groove claims confidentiality agreement doesn’t allow them to talk about the webisodes.

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October 2007 – Andrew Young pleads guilty to a DWI charge, community service for which he will end up doing in California in 2008.

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October 2007 – National Enquirer views some webisodes and acquires emails from Hunter revealing the affair.

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October 10, 2007 – National Enquirer publishes allegations of Edwards having an affair without naming Hunter.

Rielle calls Jonathan Darman of Newsweek asking if he thought she should put out a statement denying the report.

Jerome Armstrong of MyDD publishes a statement by Rielle Hunter denying the affair.

Edwards flatly denies affair to Associated Press.

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October 12, 2007 – National Review notes Edwards is asked about the affair reports by local press at every campaign stop on swing through South Carolina the day before.

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October 16, 2007 – Cindy Adams writes in her New York Post gossip column that Edwards staff not dismissing rumors – “newly nervous” and “profoundly worried.”

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October 17, 2007 – Ladies Home Journal publishes survey results on happiest married couple among presidential candidates. On hearing she and John won the poll, Elizabeth says, “The competition wasn’t very tough.”

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October 17, 2007 – Andrew Young pays off a $272,700 mortgage in full for property in Conservation Ridge, Orange County, North Carolina. In September 2008, McClatchy outlined Young’s real estate ownership record: 1998, bought a home in Cary NC for $175,000; 2000, sold the Cary home and bought a house in Raleigh for $450,000, adding another $200,000 in improvements; 2005, bought a 10-acre tract in Conservation Ridge project near Chapel Hill for $300,000; 2007, sold Raleigh house for $1.2 million; October 2007, borrowed $850,000 to build new home on Conservation Ridge property. The Youngs’ newly built home, in September 2008, after they returned to North Carolina from California, was described as 5,300 square feet on ten acres.

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October 19, 2007 – Edwards campaign cancels Orange County Register interview of Elizabeth Edwards. Campaign wanted ground rule that rumors of affair would not be addressed, but did not want ground rule acknowledged in the piece.

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November 2007 – Hunter moves to a gated community in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the Governors Club, nearby Andrew Young and his wife, Cheri. Rielle lives in a house owned by an Edwards backer. Andrew Young leaves his job as North Carolina finance director of the Edwards campaign. In North Carolina, Hunter drives a BMW rented by Andrew Young.

In June, 2009, as reported by the Daily Beast, according to editors who saw a tell-all book proposal from Andrew Young, he said he was paid to take the pregnant Rielle Hunter into his home for eight months. After Elizabeth Edwards learned of the financial arrangement, Young said, he had no further contact with the Edwards family.

A USA Today profile of Andrew Young published August 15, 2008, places his abrupt departure from the 2008 Edwards campaign in December, after Young claimed paternity of Hunter’s child. In September 2008, McClatchy published a report describing Young’s career progression with Edwards: 1998, Senate campaign staffer; 2002, Edwards’s US Senate office and PAC New American Optimists; 2004, presidential campaign; 2005, UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity (paid with private funds). He had previously worked as a lobbyist for the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers.

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November 18, 2007 – Elizabeth Edwards goes absent from the campaign trail after New Hampshire event. On December 13, 2007 she appears in DesMoines, Iowa for the Democratic Debate and then joins the campaign’s bus tour.

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Late November 2007 – National Enquirer discovers Rielle is living in Chapel Hill and having dinner with Andrew Young and his wife. Sources were saying Rielle was six months pregnant.

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December 12, 2007 – National Enquirer staking out Rielle’s OB-Gyn’s office gets a picture of Rielle Hunter outside a grocery store.

National Enquirer tries to confirm story with Edwards, whose attorney offers a sworn affidavit that Edwards wasn’t the father of the child, but according to campaign staff, Edwards didn’t sign it. He also refused a polygraph, which NE offered to kill the story.

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December 19, 2007 – National Enquirer publishes photos of pregnant Rielle Hunter taken in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A source close to Rielle tells the Enquirer that when Rielle first became pregnant, she said Edwards was the father. Rielle considered Andrew Young a friend, but was not romantically involved with him. Andrew and Cheri Young had dinner at Rielle’s house. The source also said that Rielle remained in telephone contact with Edwards, but couldn’t see him.

A source described as a well-placed campaign worker, who knew of the Edwards-Hunter relationship when Hunter worked with the campaign, told the Daily News in August 2008, that there was no such relationship between Young and Hunter. Another source from the Edwards campaign described Young as more of an Edwards family aide than a professional campaign aide.

It was reported that rumors of Cheri Young’s anger at her husband’s having covered up for John Edwards were coming out of her local beauty shop. In June of 2009, Andrew Young confirms this in a book proposal; also says John Edwards is the baby’s father.

A USA Today profile of Andrew Young published August 15, 2008, places his abrupt departure from the Edwards campaign in December, after Young claimed paternity of Hunter’s child, although National Enquirer sources placed the event in November, close to Hunter’s arrival in Chapel Hill.

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December 2007 – Attorney Robert J. Gordon of New York, said that his client, Rielle Hunter, a pregnant 43-year-old filmmaker, was not carrying Mr. Edwards’s child. Lawyer Pamela J. Marple of Washington stated her client, Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide, was the baby’s father. Both attorneys have ties to Fred Baron, national finance chairman for both the 2004 and 2008 Edwards presidential campaigns, whose firm had contributed almost $420,000 to Edwards’ campaigns since 1998, and subsidized Edwards’ air travel with use of a corporate jet. Baron denies being involved in arranging selection of attorneys for Hunter and Young, but then vaguely retracts.

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December 20, 2007 – National Enquirer editor-in-chief David Perel says source for Hunter-Edwards love child story was not a rival political campaign. Calls sources “extraordinarily good” and “beyond reproach.”

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December 31, 2007 – National Enquirer print edition publishes investigation.

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December 2007/January 2008 – While some campaign staffers suspected an affair in Fall 2006, more campaign staff say they didn’t suspect before December 2007/January 2008. Doomsday strategy to sabotage Edwards campaign if it looked like he might win the nomination.

Ari Berman of The Nation confirms. Such discussion among campaign veterans did take place in December 2007.

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2008
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January 2008 – Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young, with his wife and children, are moved to a house in a gated community in Santa Barbara, California. Soon, after problems arise in the household, Hunter moves out and into her own house, a $3 million mansion renting for $6000 a month. Both houses, along with travel from North Carolina to California, were arranged for and paid for by Fred Baron.

Once Rielle moves out, all contact with the Youngs ceased, according to the National Enquirer.

A source close to Andrew Young says Young has not paid a cent in child support for Rielle’s baby.

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January 30, 2008 – John Edwards drops out of presidential primaries.

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February 27, 2008 – Hunter gives birth to daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter in Santa Barbara CA; father’s name unstated on birth certificate.

At some point after this, Andrew Young finds a sex tape of Edwards and Hunter. Young was unpacking, according to a New York Daily News report on his June 2009 book publishing deal with St. Martin’s Press, having moved his family out of the house they shared in California with Hunter. Most other sources have reported it was Hunter who moved out of the house she was sharing with the Youngs.

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March 20, 2008 – Cenk Uygur runs into John Edwards outside Beverly Hilton Hotel on this date. Edwards says he is in town for the Tonight Show and was a guest at the hotel. On August 12, 2008, Lee Stranahan of Huffington Post speculates Enquirer spycam photo of Edwards wearing a blue tee shirt and holding a baby inside hotel room was taken on March 20.

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June 2008 – According to a Santa Barbara woman who met Rielle and her baby, Rielle moved into a $9000 a month mansion with a stable. According to this woman and other Santa Barbara mothers who met Rielle, they thought her a nice person and good mother.

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June 2008 – Roger Friedman of Fox News is told by a source that Edwards took the basement elevator in the Beverly Hilton. Friedman thinks Edwards was visiting Rielle Hunter.

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July 2008 – National Enquirer will report in May 2009, after Elizabeth’s release of her book, Resilience, that the Edwardses are living apart and have been since July 2008, Elizabeth having barred the bedroom door in December 2006.

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July 18, 2008 – National Enquirer gets a tip Edwards will be visiting Hunter at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

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July 21, 2008 – National Enquirer catches John Edwards visiting Rielle Hunter and baby at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Arrives 9:45 PM bypassing lobby. The Enquirer mentions that Edwards and Hunter left the hotel together briefly, but gives no details of that sighting. At 2:40 AM: Edwards escapes into a men’s room in the basement, where he stays for 15 minutes until eventually escorted out by security. In his Nightline confession of August 8, 2008, Edwards will say that Hunter’s friend, Robert McGovern, had called him at his Los Angeles hotel to set up a meeting at which McGovern, who had an adjoining room to Hunter’s, was present. McGovern had driven Edwards to the Beverly Hilton, having earlier driven Hunter from Santa Barbara to the Beverly Hilton.

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July 23, 2008 – ExtraTV reports Hunter denying to them that National Enquirer hotel story is true.

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July 25, 2008 – Fox News reports security guard at Beverly Hilton confirms Enquirer story; reports a former campaign staffer is upset, but not surprised.

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Late July 2008 – This is the first Fred Baron claims to have learned of affair. Says Edwards came clean to him and a few other friends. (Unclear if this is before or after Beverly Hilton incident.)

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July 31, 2008 – Report that Edwards’s educational charity “College for Everyone” has ended.

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August 5, 2008 – Hunter calls 911 from Los Angeles Freeway saying paparazzi is following her trying to prove someone is the father of her baby “who’s not.” Tape recording of 911 call is broadcast on “Inside Edition.”
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August 6, 2008 – Democrats call on Edwards to address affair rumors before Democratic National Convention.

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August 7, 2008 – Rielle Hunter and baby flown out of California by private jet costing $50,000 to St. Croix, accommodations said to be paid for by Edwards friend and trial lawyer, Lee Rohn and other Edwards backers. Former Virgin Islands Senator Anne Golden confirmed that Hunter stayed with Rohn at first, but after Enquirer reporters found her, Hunter was moved to a motel before leaving for California on August 17. Lee Rohn vehemently denied she was a friend of Edwards or hosted Hunter in St. Croix.

Andrew Young family moves back to North Carolina. In September 2008, the Raleigh News-Observer reported the Youngs’ newly built home was 5,300 square feet on ten acres outside Chapel Hill. An $850,000 loan to build the house on Conservation Ridge was taken in October 2007, the month the National Enquirer first published articles about Edwards-Hunter affair. The newspaper asks: How did a man who collected a middle-class income raising money and serving as a personal assistant wind up doing so well for himself?

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August 8, 2008 – John Edwards interview on ABC Nightline: admits “mistake” with Hunter in 2006 – admits meeting with her in hotel room July 2008, which he had previously denied, saying he was there to convince Hunter not to reveal their affair – denies paternity of Hunter’s child – says baby’s birth on February 27, 2008 does not fit timing of affair – says affair started after Hunter was hired to do webisodes in 2006 – declares willingness to take paternity test – his wife’s cancer was in remission at time of affair – says he does not remember baby being present in hotel room and claims published photo of him holding baby either doctored or taken elsewhere – denies knowing of Fred Baron’s payments to Hunter or to former Edwards campaign aide, Andrew Young. Says he has told his family “every detail” and will not say anything further to the public.

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August 8, 2008 – Elizabeth Edwards posts to DailyKos: Refers to “mistake – begs for privacy – denies husband is child’s father – family will stand by him.

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August 8, 2008 – Fred Baron reiterates that Edwards did not know about personal payments to Hunter for resettlement to from North Carolina to California.

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August 9, 2008 – Hunter’s sister, Melissa Druck speaks out for the first time, demanding a paternity test of Edwards.

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August 9, 2008 – On CNN, David Perel, editor-in-chief of National Enquirer, says initial sources of affair story (October 2007) gave tip that Edwards would be at hotel to meet Rielle. Also that Rielle says she never had a sexual relationship with Andrew Young.

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August 10, 2008 – Attorney Robert J. Gordon, Hunter’s lawyer in December 2007, issues statement that she will not be authorizing paternity test. Hunter requests privacy for herself and her daughter.

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August 10, 2008 – Mimi Hockman tells Newark Star-Ledger she is ”contractually prohibited“ from talking to them.

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August 11, 2008 – Pigeon O’Brien is interviewed by ABC News: O’Brien says Hunter-Edwards affair began almost six months before Hunter was hired to do webisode project.

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August 12, 2008 – CBS News Early Show. Pigeon O’Brien describes the relationship as mutually pursued; denies Hunter would have stalked Edwards or had a child with a man she didn’t love.

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August 13, 2008 – National Enquirer reports Edwards political operative still paying off Rielle Hunter. Says they have evidence that Edwards visited Rielle and baby three separate times at same Los Angeles hotel. Edwards restarted affair with Hunter after his December 2006 confession to his wife.

National Enquirer claims, after saying on Nightline that he did not love Rielle, Edwards called her and told her he did love her. A source described as an ”insider“ claimed Rielle and Edwards had worked it out in advance that he would offer to take a paternity test and she would say no. Also, Elizabeth Edwards learned of affair from a campaign worker who walked in on Edwards and Hunter in a hotel room in 2006. Elizabeth confronted her husband and then he confessed to a one-time indiscretion.

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August 13, 2008 – Robert McGovern’s daughter says the National Enquirer had offered her $50,000 for McGovern’s story and McGovern refused. Says McGovern was just driving Rielle, a friend of many years, as a favor.

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August 14, 2008 – New York Times piece about lawyers involved with Edwards affair.

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August 15, 2008 – Office of Robert J. Gordon, who denied paternity by Edwards on Hunter’s behalf in 2007 and spoke for Hunter regarding paternity test August 10, 2008, refuses to take message from CBS for Hunter.

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August 15, 2008 – Colleagues and acquaintances see Young as a loyalist who would cover for Edwards.

Neighbors, too. Young’s mother, Jacquelyn Juchatz, doubts her son was the father of Hunter’s baby.

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August 16, 2008 – Salon profile of Rielle Hunter.

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August 16, 2008 – Roger Friedman of Fox News cites a source close to Midline Groove who claims a payment of $14,000 to Rielle Hunter in April 2007 was not for unused webisode footage, all of which had been turned over to the Edwards campaign in February 2007. In addition, the payment did not appear in Midline Groove’s bank records.

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August 22, 2008 – National Enquirer editor-in-chief David Perel denies Rielle Hunter was source of photo of Edwards and the baby at Beverly Hilton, wishes she was a source.

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August 25, 2008 – People Magazine. Closest friend of Elizabeth Edwards, Hargrave McElroy and others. While Elizabeth pushed Edwards to a public confession, she was crushed by the outcome, her husband’s image tarnished, seen as pariah.

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September 26, 2008 – A John Edwards-Karl Rove debate had been scheduled for this date at SUNY Buffalo. Edwards was replaced by General Wesley Clark.

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October 29, 2008 – Elizabeth Edwards delivers a talk on health care at George Washington University. The Washington Post notes she was not wearing a wedding ring.

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October 30, 2008 – New York Post’s Page Six reports Edwardses have separated, but source was not confirmed.

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October 30, 2008 – Source tells New York Magazine Edwardses have separated.

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October 30, 2008 – Fred Baron dies of cancer.

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November 10, 2008 – John Edwards speaks at Indiana University; takes only pre-screened questions.

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November 5, 2008 – Report that National Enquirer says they are in possession of a dirty diaper with which to test the DNA of Frances Quinn Hunter should they obtain Edwards’ own DNA. Also say Hunter is writing a tell-all book.

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December 2008 – Lease runs out on Hunter’s Santa Barbara house.

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December 17, 2008 – Rielle Hunter and child reported to again be living in South Orange, New Jersey.

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2009
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February 3, 2009 – Fox News reports that Elizabeth Edwards will write about Rielle Hunter and affair.

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April 27, 2009 – National Enquirer print edition reports sources claiming Rielle Hunter has decided to go public in response to Elizabeth Edwards with an “ABC News” interview with Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters, which would be scheduled to air mid-May 2009.

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April 30, 2009 – The New York Daily News, having received an advance copy of Elizabeth Edwards’s book, Resilience, reports book will cover the Edwards-Hunter affair.

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March 4, 2009 – National Enquirer reports that Edwards has confessed to Elizabeth that he is the baby’s father. On the same page of the ”exclusive“ the Enquirer shows an announcement of Elizabeth’s book due out in May 2009. According to a ”close source,“ Rielle has become nervous about Elizabeth’s book and threatened to go public herself, if John did not tell his wife he was the father of Rielle’s baby.

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March 10, 2009 – John Edwards speaks at Brown University; for the first time, publicly responds to supporters’ disappointment in moral standard, but not really.

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April 2009 – Author Jay McInerney, who was Hunter’s lover in the 1980s, publishes a collection of short fiction. In a story called ”Penelope of the Pond,“ a character of that era and based on Rielle Hunter, Alison Poole is revived and working as a media consultant on a presidential campaign. She is having an affair with the candidate and they are using a campaign aide as a beard. The candidate’s wife, however, isn’t buying it and Alison is fired.

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May 3, 2009 – Edwards confirms there is a Federal inquiry into money paid to Rielle Hunter, says he is cooperating.

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May 5, 2009 – Some details of Elizabeth Edwards’s scheduled May 7 interview with Oprah are revealed. It is noted Elizabeth does not mention the baby in her new book, Resilience, but in the interview no longer denies the possibility of her husband’s having fathered the child, says she has ”no idea.“

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May 7, 2009 – Elizabeth Edwards interview by Oprah airs. Says husband did bad thing, but marriage otherwise perfect. Oprah had to agree Rielle Hunter’s name would not be mentioned although discussion about Hunter throughout.

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May 9, 2009 – Associated Press is unable to interview Elizabeth Edwards for article due to her insistence Rielle Hunter’s name not be used anywhere. Through her publishers she is asked her motivation in writing the book. She says she decided not to go through with it after learning of the affair, but changed her mind.

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May 11, 2009 – Good Morning America interview. Elizabeth says again that John made one bad mistake, but otherwise a good man. Says more clearly she loves him. Had she known it was more than a one-night stand, she might have been more adamant about his not running.

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May 11, 2009 – Rielle Hunter and her lawyers, Louis, Stolfe & Zeigler, prepare child support documents. Radar Online will release Family Part Case Information Statement in December 2009. The documents had first been obtained by the National Enquirer.

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May 12, 2009 – Elizabeth Edwards appeared on “Larry King Live.” She claimed she dismissed the first National Enquirer reports of affair, which were published in October 2007. However, the Enquirer reports came ten months after she was told by her husband he had had an affair with Hunter.

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May 13, 2009 – National Enquirer reporting that the Edwardses are living apart and have been since July 2008, Elizabeth having barred the bedroom door in December 2006. May 25, 2009 print edition to claim he lives in a condo nearby the Edwards home and sometimes at beach house.

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May 13, 2009 – John Edwards reported to be on an anti-poverty trip to El Salvador during his wife’s book promotion tour.

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May 14, 2009 – Washington Post discusses Elizabeth’s insistence on interviewers not mentioning Rielle Hunter’s name.

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May 14, 2009 – Associated Press article on PACs such as One America Committee as ”personal piggy banks.“

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May 19, 2009 – Elizabeth Edwards appeared on “The View,” saying she would not leave her husband even if Frances Quinn Hunter turned out to be his child.

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May 20, 2009 – Democratic US Senator Kay Hagan, who heads a screening committee for recommending US Attorney replacements, says current US Attorney in North Carolina, George Holding should stay on until Edwards investigation is completed.

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May 20, 2009 – National Enquirer reports a Rielle Hunter/Barbara Walters interview will air on ABC in June. The decision was made, says the Enquirer, in reaction to Elizabeth Edwards’s trashing Hunter on the book tour. Hunter will also seek commitment of one quarter of John Edwards’s “estate” after a DNA match is confirmed. Source says Rielle has “decided to break from John.” ABC tells “Extra” no such interview has been booked.

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June 18, 2009 – John Edwards gave an interview to the Washington Post about his anti-poverty work. The article covered promises unkept to Katrina victims and North Carolina students. “Edwards refused to talk about Hunter, the baby’s paternity, his wife’s memoir or the campaign investigation.”

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June 22, 2009 – Daily Beast reports Andrew Young is shopping a tell-all book project around to New York publishers. Rielle Hunter surprised. According to editors who saw the proposal, Young says he was paid to take the pregnant Rielle Hunter into his home for eight months. Since Elizabeth Edwards learned of the financial arrangement, Young says, he has had no contact with the Edwards family.
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June 28, 2009 – Andrew Young claims to have a sex tape of Edwards and Hunter. Young was unpacking, according to a New York Daily News report on his new book publishing deal with St. Martin’s Press, when he found the tape, having moved his family out of the house they shared in California with Hunter. Most other sources have reported it was Hunter who moved out on the Youngs.

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June 29, 2009 – Character in Elizabeth Edwards’s book she called “Jim” identified as Andrew Young. She holds him partly responsible for her husband’s affair with Hunter.

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July 2009 – It is later reported that Andrew Young appeared before a grand jury in Raleigh NC to testify in a probe of John Edwards’s campaign finances.

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August 6, 2009 – Rielle Hunter appeared before a grand jury in Raleigh NC. She was in the courthouse for nine hours. She and her daughter arrived accompanied by FBI agents, entering and leaving by a back door. The grand jury is hearing testimony on Edwards’s campaign finances, including payments made to Hunter for video work while they were having an affair.

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August 12, 2009 – The National Enquirer reports that John Edwards has taken a secret DNA test, which confirmed paternity of Frances Quinn Hunter. A source said Rielle had hired an attorney to get child support and Edwards agreed to take the DNA test. A difference source said Edwards always knew he was the father.

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August 13, 2009 – Sources tell WRAL News that they expect John Edwards to admit that he is the father of the child.

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August 20, 2009 – National Enquirer reports Edwards is moving Hunter and their daughter to Wilmington NC, where he can help raise the child. When Elizabeth learned of a positive DNA test result, according to friends, and then that Hunter was moving nearby their beach house, she started to pack up to leave. She demanded Edwards give her Rielle’s cell phone number and called to scream at her.

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September 19, 2009 – The New York Times confirms that associates of John Edwards say he intends to acknowledge paternity of his daughter with Rielle Hunter. Alexander Forger, Bunny Mellon’s attorney, is quoted as saying that Andrew Young requested money for Edwards, which was used in support of Hunter, but Mellon was unaware of the recipient. Also, in Andrew Young’s book proposal, Young claims Edwards asked Fred Baron if he knew a doctor who would falsify a DNA test.

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September 27, 2009 – The New York Daily News identifies Elizabeth as an Internet commenter called “Cherubim,” who has been trashing Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young online. In his book proposal, Young says that Elizabeth left taunting messages on his family answering machine. Young also says that John Edwards had affairs with women on the campaign trail other than Rielle Hunter.

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October 2009 – The Edwards Campaign, according to FEC reports, spent this month more than $96,000: $43,573.92 in legal fees, over $4,000 in airfare and roughly $15,000 in salary to Edwards’s former chief financial officer and comptroller. As reported by Politico.

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November 25, 2009 – Edwards is said to have purchased a house for Hunter in Charlotte NC on this date.

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December 11, 2009 – The Charlotte Observer reports on December 15, that John Edwards flew to Bunny Mellon’s home in Virginia on her private plane. Mellon had donated $3.48 million to Alliance for a New America, a 527 group tied to Edwards’ presidential campaign, and is a possible witness in the grand jury investigation of his campaign finances.

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December 14, 2009 – The Charlotte Business Journal reports the rumor that John Edwards purchased a house for Rielle Hunter in Charlotte NC for $535,000, November 25, on Providence Road in Myers Park. On the Mecklenburg County deed, the buyer of the house was listed as The Providence Road Trust. The trust’s mailing address is a Raleigh post office box registered to the law firm of Maria Lynch, treasurer of the Wade Edwards Foundation. Hunter had been scheduled to move in December 1, but according to this report, the house remains vacant. The National Enquirer has reported that Edwards has refused her entry to the house until she backs down on child support.

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December 16, 2009 – ABC News Blog posts that Andrew and Cheri Young will be interviewed for 20/20 to air on January 29, 2010. On February 2, 2010 Young will be interviewed live on Good Morning America by George Stephanopoulos. Young’s book, The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down, will be the topic of both interviews.

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December 17, 2009 – Radar Online releases Family Part Case Information Statement prepared by Rielle Hunter and her lawyers, Louis, Stolfe & Zeigler, against John Edwards for child support. The documents are dated May 11, 2009—the same week Elizabeth Edwards began her television book tour last spring. The documents were first obtained by the National Enquirer.

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2010
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January 29, 2010 – Andrew and Cheri Young interview on 20/20 airs, as announced by ABC News Blog.

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February 2, 2010 – Andrew Young interview live on Good Morning America by George Stephanopoulos, as announced by ABC News Blog.

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Well-said

Nutty? ‘Fringe’? We’re not sure if it was the woman who appeared on Oprah last week or her idiot followers online. The woman was Elizabeth Edwards.

-snip

Time’s short, especially when you have cancer. You don’t have time for self-delusions. In the Edwards Fairy Tale, one adopted by a number of woman bloggers who should know better, John and Elizabeth lived in the Garden of Eden, or at least Allah, and all was perfect and wonderful between the two of them until one day, many, many years later, Rielle slinked onto stage. She lurked, she tempted and poor John, probably heady from a hot oil treatment, finally caved.

Rielle is an adventurous woman, according to mutual friends. She is not, however, a rapist. And to be Elizabeth or one of her online supporters, you pretty much have to cast Rielle as a rapist. It is all so much slut-shaming that we keep expecting the same actresses who played Amy Fisher in TV movies years ago (Drew Barrymore and Alyssa Milano among them) to show up playing Rielle.

Rielle’s a grown woman, unmarried. She can sleep with whomever she wants. It’s her business. She’s not taken a vow to anyone. Elizabeth Edwards told Oprah, “There is no excuse for women to do this. Women need to have respect for other women.”

-snip

John Edwards cheated on Elizabeth. Rielle didn’t. John Edwards lied to Elizabeth. So it was really funny to watch Elizabeth’s blogging crew online work overtime to support Lizzie and attack Rielle. One huffed, “After a marriage of 30 years, she has a lot invested in the man.” Yeah, too much invested in him as was obvious during the Kerry campaign when John and Elizabeth were the picture of harmony (remember the front page photo of all their kids frolicking in the summer of 2004?) but when the press moved on, things weren’t so pretty. While Teresa Heinz-Kerry was ready to go any and everywhere (and did, winning over a huge number of Latinos in Texas with a speech tying her immigrant story into America’s shared history), Elizabeth preferred not to be too far from her husband and the rumors of his straying were already rampant within the Kerry campaign. Elizabeth did have “a lot invested in the man,” in fact, she had too much.

She still does…

Third Estate Sunday Review

“The whole thing is just baffling”

The whole thing is just baffling. Why would Edwards enter the race under these circumstances? And why didn’t Edwards quit the race a few months later when it was discovered his wife’s cancer had spread — giving him a graceful reason to bow out? Did John and Elizabeth Edwards really think the affair could be kept secret indefinitely? Was there any thought at all given to the impact on their children, their supporters, the Democratic Party and the nation if and when the affair was exposed?

Was Edwards really so egotistical, so ambitious to think taking the risk was worth the possible (and likely) consequences?

Apparently so.

Kalamazoo (MI) Gazette

I would ask Elizabeth that last question, too.

John Edwards’ Wife: New Book Will Address Affair

You’d think after the chaos last year surrounding former Senator John Edwards’ personal life, his wife, Elizabeth, would not be looking for more publicity — or inviting questions.

But on May 12th, Broadway Books, a division of Random House, is releasing a new short memoir by Elizabeth called “Resilience,” a follow up to her best selling “Saving Graces.”

Edwards insiders are wondering if “Resilience” will be a tell-all, tell-some, tell-none, or an exercise in denial. The Broadway Books catalog says Edwards has written “an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life’s biggest challenges.”

The publication of “Resilience” may not prove so inspirational to one reader, however: Rielle Hunter, the woman who gave birth last year to a baby girl whom many speculate was fathered by Edwards. Hunter has privately told friends that the child is Edwards’. Sources say the resemblance is as good as a paternity test.

So far, Hunter and Edwards have not come to any agreement about the baby’s paternity or finances — absolutely some of “life’s biggest challenges.”

The usually private Elizabeth Edwards, I am told, is definitely including her take on the relationship in her new book. Her publicist says she will be addressing John’s “affair and how she experienced it.”

Indeed, how Elizabeth “experienced” may be just as the public did: Edwards suddenly exited the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 30, 2008. In early August, after much pressure and a sting by the National Enquirer, he admitted the affair. What he didn’t say: the end of his campaign came exactly one month before Hunter gave birth to baby Frances Quinn.

Fox News

Edwards and wife exploit her cancer in Iowa mailer

TPM Election Central 11/14/07
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/11/edwards_mailer_in_iowa_reiterates_his_threat_to_take_away_congress_health_care.php

Elizabeth Edwards criticizes Kerry-Edwards campaign ads

Among other things, she talked about the campaign’s fifty state strategy and differentiated Edwards from the strategy used in 2004 and the one she’s hearing from DC consultant types this cycle too. In 2004 the strategy was the Gore states plus Florida. This year many of the Democratic political class is looking to a Kerry states plus Ohio.

Elizabeth said thats not how John Edwards will campaign if he gets the nomination, she noted the Democrats didn’t air one ad in North Carolina in 2004. They were up in Louisiana for about two seconds.

She went on, “They didn’t run one ad in Tennessee, because Al Gore didn’t carry it in 2000. Kansas? Thomas Frank wrote a whole book about What’s the Matter with Kansas. And Oklahoma, what state could be more Republican than Oklahoma? OK Montana.”

Boston for Edwards 10/27/07
http://eyeopener.typepad.com/bostonforedwards/2007/10/elizabeth-edwar.html

Interview is no go over question on alleged Edwards affair

Finally, this morning, I get word that I wouldn’t be talking to John Edwards but that I would get 10 minutes with Elizabeth Edwards. I talked this over with my editor — we don’t want to be obligated to talk to every candidate’s spouse who comes through town, but agreed that Elizabeth had an exceptional story because of her ongoing battle with cancer. We agreed that Bill Clinton would probably also be an exception.So the interview was a go. In the afternoon, I got a call from the Edwards campaign inquiring about the questions I would be posing. I don’t feel obligated to give advance notice of my questions, but I wanted to be upfront in this case. I said that among my questions, I would ask, “Would you address the rumor of your husband’s affair?”

Out of respect for Elizabeth Edwards and because the rumors were unsubstantiated, I said I would not press the issue beyond asking the single question — but that I felt obliged to ask it.

The campaign worker did her best to convince me that it wasn’t a legitimate question. I asked if she was saying that I couldn’t do the interview if I was going to ask that question. I didn’t get a straight answer, so I asked if I would get the interview if I agreed not to ask the question — if she wanted that ground rule.

The campaign worker was sharp. She immediately asked that if it was a ground rule, would I then write that I got the interview because I agreed to the ground rule?

I said I would indeed mention, at least on the blog, that such a provision was required for me to get the interview. She said she’d get back to me, and later called to say the interview had been cancelled.

snip

I think I made the right decisions in how I handled this. I subsequently talked it over with my editor and a couple of other reporters whose judgement I trust. I was honest with the Edwards campaign, and I proposed what I thought might be a fair compromise (I don’t ask the question, but note the condition of not asking it was required to get the interview).

But I still have my reservations. At what point does something have enough credibility that you ask the participants about it? The standard is higher when the issue is personal, like adultery, but how much higher? Is it possible to fully do one’s job in the mainstream of an industry — in this case, daily newspaper journalism — and not abide the evolving standards of that industry?

Orange County Register 10/19/07
LINK

Edwards’ Happy Marriage Win

Elizabeth Edwards says she’s not surprised that she and husband John Edwards won a poll on happy marriages among presidential candidates.

She says jokingly that the competition wasn’t very tough.

The Ladies Home Journal survey released last week shows 52 percent of women thought the Democratic couple from Chapel Hill are happily married. U.S. Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, led Republican candidates with 35 percent.

WTN TV 10/17/07
http://www.witntv.com/home/headlines/10613152.html

… Uses Elizabeth To Say What He Can’t, Even When He’s Standing Nearby

Lynda Waddington has an interesting account of a joint appearance of former Sen. John Edwards and his outspoken wife, Elizabeth, in Cedar Rapids. An Iowan asked about whether John Edwards would fight to ensure that every vote was counted before conceding a general election (harkening back to Kerry’s concession in 2004, before irregularities in Ohio had been fully investigated, and Gore’s concession in 2000, after a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court). John gave the answer that a candidate is allowed to give: yes, I’ll fight, etc. etc. But then he handed the mic to Elizabeth, who made an argument that John could not have made himself:

“The votes don’t belong to Al Gore or John Kerry or John Edwards,” she said. “They belong to you and it can’t be our decision not to count your vote. It belongs to you and the promise was made to you that your votes would be counted. That’s the first thing — it should never have been the candidate’s decision if the votes were counted.

“The second thing is this is the reason we need to nominate John. The truth of the matter is that you hear Democrats all the time say that we should win all the same states. After 2000, they said, ‘and Florida.’ And now they say, ‘We need to win all the states and Ohio.’ Why in the world would we take such a chance when we have a candidate who, in the battleground states, is by far the most electable candidate?”

Elizabeth went on to say that, when husband is the likely nominee and placed against the likely Republican nominee, he wins nearly every state. In the same situation, she said, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wins less than half and Sen. Barack Obama wins less than a third.

“You want a cushion in the event that there are shenanigans someplace?” she asked. “This is the guy you need. What’s more than that, we need to campaign everyplace. Howard Dean is right. We need a 50-state strategy. Are we going to win Utah? Not likely, but that doesn’t mean we don’t play there and that doesn’t mean we don’t fight there. You know in 2004 we didn’t run a single television advertisement in the state of North Carolina and there was a North Carolinian on the ballot. Why? Because the pubahs in Washington all decided that we can’t win the state of North Carolina.”

Pundits have mentioned this phenomenon — of Elizabeth coming out strong because she is covered in the political equivalent of teflon — to explain arguments Elizabeth has sparked about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s electability, abut Ann Coulter’s divisiveness, and other things, but this event is an obvious example, because John and Elizabeth were standing right next to each other, and they gave answers that differed greatly not just in content but also in tone.

Lynda’s writeup on Iowa Independent has audio of the exchange (at the bottom of the page).

Chase Martin On Display

http://cmondisplay.com/2007/10/08/john-edwards-uses-elizabeth-to-say-what-he-cant-even-when-hes-standing-nearby/

Elizabeth Edwards: John Wanted To “Fight” 2004 Election Results, Was Overruled

Elizabeth Edwards, in an interview with Air America Radio, said that she’s “disappointed” that the Kerry campaign conceded the election so quickly in 2004.

“I was very disappointed, not just because we did not count the votes, but because we promised people that if they stood in line and fought for the right to vote, that we would fight with them,” Mrs. Edwards told Richard Green, the host of “Clout” on Air America Radio.

“And I was very disappointed that the decision was made by the campaign, over John’s objection, not to fight,” she added.

Has either of the Edwards pair ever pointed a finger at Kerry for this before?

TPM/election central

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/10/elizabeth_edwards_john_wanted_to_fight_2004_election_results_was_overruled.php