Ex-Edward's aide details payments to mistress

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- John Edwards' first reaction when he learned his mistress might be pregnant was to downplay the chances he was the father, calling the woman a "crazy slut," his former close aide testified yesterday.

Later, when the former presidential candidate came to realize in the midst of his 2008 campaign that he was the father, he asked the aide, Andrew Young, to claim paternity and hatched a plan to funnel money from rich friends to provide the woman a monthly allowance, even though Young said he doubted it was legal.

So went Young's version of events, as he took the witness stand for a second day at Edwards' criminal trial. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six counts related to campaign finance violations involving nearly $1 million in secret payments provided by two donors.

Young said the mistress, Rielle Hunter, told Edwards in 2007 she was pregnant. Edwards told Young to "take care of it."

"He said she was a crazy slut and there was a 1-in-3 chance that it [the child] was his," Young testified.

Edwards directed him to start giving money to Hunter, in May 2007, after she threatened to go to the media and expose the affair, Young said. Edwards suggested asking elderly heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, who had already given generously to the campaign.

Prosecutors showed the jury a series of canceled checks from Mellon written to her interior designer, who would endorse them and send them to Young and his wife, Cheri.

Starting in June 2007, Mellon would eventually provide checks totaling $750,000.

Without telling Mellon what the money would be used for, beyond that it was a "noncampaign" expense, Young said she offered to provide $1.2 million over time to help pay for the candidate's personal needs. Under federal law, donors are limited to giving a maximum of $2,300 per election cycle.

"We were scared," Young said. "It was a truckload of money, more money than had ever flowed through our accounts. . . . It was crazy." Young said he expressed concern to Edwards, a former trial lawyer, that they might be violating federal campaign finance laws.

"He told me he had talked to several campaign finance experts and that it was legal," Young testified. "It felt and smelled wrong. But he knew more about the law than we did. We believed him."