‘Hush money’ claim in latest Edwards development

The John Edwards story, which threatens to overshadow the upcoming Democratic Party convention despite the lack of mainstream press attention in the US [see today’s earlier post], has taken a turn with the National Enquirer publishing a new report which claims that Rielle Hunter, the alleged mother of a “love child” by the two-times former presidential candidate, has been secretly receiving $15,000 a month “hush money” as part of a cover-up orchestrated by Edwards.

The newspaper claims that the money is being passed to Hunter, 44, by a wealthy colleague who was closely tied to the Edwards campaign before he bowed out of the Democratic race. This same man, claims the report, is also passing money to Edwards’s former aide, Andrew Young, who, the paper alleges, “tried to take the heat off” Edwards by claiming that Hunter’s child is his and not Edwards’s. The Enquirer is also names Rielle’s “love child” for the first time, and reports that it is a girl and that she was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

A source told the Enquirer that the man making the payments was a “super-rich pal” of Edwards’s who very likely was not aware of the details of what the newspaper claims is an extramarital affair.

Today’s report follows last week’s claim by the Enquirer that its reporters had found Edwards, 55, making a late-night visit to rendezvous with Rielle and her daughter at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles on July 21. Fox News has since reported that a Beverly Hilton security guard had confirmed that he encountered Edwards - who was not a registered guest - at the hotel after 2 am.

The National Enquirer claims to have been investigating Edwards’s private life for a year. When the newspaper’s reporters confronted Edwards at the Beverly Hilton, he refused to answer questions and took refuge in a men’s lavatory from where he called security.

The Enquirer claims that the Beverly Hilton meeting between Edwards and Rielle was organised by a longtime friend of Rielle’s, Bob McGovern, who, the paper says, drove Rielle to Beverly Hills from Santa Barbara and booked two rooms under his name. Rielle and Edwards met in one of those rooms, the paper says.

FIRST POSTED JULY 30, 2008