Rielle Hunter: 'I'm sorry ... I was selfish'

Eight years after the affair that sunk the reputation and political career of John Edwards, Rielle Hunter has finally apologized.

Her apology, which happens to coincide with release of a new book, comes in an article in the Huffington Post.

"I am very sorry for my wrong, selfish behavior," she wrote. "Back in 2006, I did not think about the scope of my actions, how my falling in love with John Edwards, and acting on that love, could hurt so many people. I hurt Elizabeth and her kids. I hurt her family. I hurt John's family. I hurt people that knew Elizabeth."

 Her new book adds two words to the title of her last: "In Hindsight, What Really Happened: The Revised Edition: John Edwards, My Daughter, and Me." As she describes it, it's sort of the corrected version of her first book.

"... (I)nstead of apologizing when I should have, I went on to hurt more people by writing a book," she wrote in the Post. "I truly did not realize at that time how damaged I was and because of that, when I wrote my book I made more mistakes, ones I feel horrible about."

Hunter apparently lives in Charlotte with the daughter she had with Edwards, a former U.S. senator and presidential candidate. Edwards and his daughter Quinn were seen this month shopping in the Cotswold Harris-Teeter.

National Enquirer's Edwards' tipster outs herself

As John Edwards' legal saga builds to an apparent climax at a Raleigh courthouse, the woman who tipped the National Enquirer to his affair has spilled the details in a story for the Huffington Post.

Pigeon O'Brien, who has been living in Asheville, describes how she'd been a friend of the woman then named Lisa Druck since the 1980s. After Druck changed her name to Rielle Hunter, and got involved with a man named John from North Carolina, O'Brien found herself keeping an increasingly uncomfortable secret.

Leaks spouted from various sources. Her phone rang with queries. That's when she says she decided to spill what she knew.

"I made one phone call simply to take the pressure off myself because I couldn't live with it anymore," O'Brien told me this morning.

The Enquirer contracted O'Brien to silence -- she said she doesn't recall how much she was paid -- and went on to expose the affair in 2007. The next year it disclosed that he had fathered Hunter's daughter.

A grand jury in Raleigh is reportedly near the end of a two-year investigation into whether Edwards violated campaign finance laws in covering up the affair. This week the former U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate added former White House counsel Greg Craig to his legal team.

Hunter has been living in Charlotte with her daughter. Edwards is holed up at home in Chapel Hill. O'Brien is watching the story unfold from the sidelines.

"I just think it's important to realize the truth comes out in a million different ways," she said.

NBC reports charges may be near for Edwards

NBC News is reporting this morning that charges may be near in the marathon federal investigation of former Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards.

Prosecutors are believed to have been looking into whether Edwards, a former vice presidential candidate, violated campaign laws in covering up his affair with Rielle Hunter, a former campaign videographer who now lives in Charlotte.

The federal grand jury in Raleigh that's heard evidence in the case isn't scheduled to meet again until March. But NBC reported the 2-year-old investigation is at "a decisive point."


"Sources close to the investigation say Justice Department attorneys are now conducting a final review of evidence, and an indictment could come within days or weeks," the network said. "In what could be an ominous development for Edwards, prosecutors already are making arrangements to record the sworn
testimony of a key witness for possible use in a future trial, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"'It would be surprising now if he wasn't indicted,' said Stephen Saltsburg, a former federal prosecutor and George Washington University law professor. 'If John Edwards was aware that the money was being paid to hide his mistress .... and it was done to help his campaign, then he's in trouble'."


Edwards attorney, Wade Smith of Raleigh, told NBC that he doesn't believe "there is evidence that John violated any election laws."

Prosecutors reportedly plan to record the testimony of 100-year-old Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. Former Edwards aide Andrew Young -- who once claimed paternity of Edwards' child with Hunter -- has written that the wealthy Mellon gave $700,000 that was used for Hunter's living expenses. He called it "Bunny money."

Charlotte house bought by trust with possible ties to Edwards

A private trust fund with apparent ties to John Edwards bought a house in Charlotte last month, fueling speculation that it was for his mistress, Rielle Hunter.

Some Eastover residents and real estate agents -- as well as tabloids -- have been buzzing about the possibility that Hunter and her daughter Frances could be moving into the house at 1611 Providence Road, across the street from Providence Road Sundries. However, reports now suggest that might not happen after all.

According to the deed, Alan Simpson sold the house to The Providence Road Trust for $535,000.

"The buyer wanted to remain anonymous," Simpson said today. "I have heard speculation (about Hunter). I could not tell you who was buying the house."

The trustee listed on the deed could not be reached. The trust's mailing address is a Raleigh post office box registered to the law firm Lynch & Eatman. Attorney Maria Lynch is treasurer of the Wade Edwards Foundation, according to the 2008 tax return of the organization founded by John and Elizabeth Edwards to honor their late son. Lynch has not returned several calls.

Three real estate agents involved in the sale would not discuss it, citing confidentiality. But another one who was not involved said agents had been buzzing with speculation that Edwards was buying it for Hunter.

The National Enquirer, which broke the story of Edwards' affair last year, features a picture of the house in editions that went on sale Monday. It said Hunter was scheduled to move in Dec. 1 but didn't after she and Edwards got into a dispute over child support.

Hunter, reached by the Observer last week on her cell phone, declined to discuss the matter.

"I don’t speak to the media, and that comment was off the record," she said. "Thank you for calling and have a great day."

Neither Charlotte attorney Jim Cooney, who is helping represent Edwards, or Hunter's New Jersey attorney Frank Louis would comment.

It was unclear where Hunter is. She has been living in Southport, according to a New Hanover County real estate agent. The Enquirer said she had checked into a Charlotte hotel prior to the anticipated Dec. 1 move-in date.

The speculation over where she'll live next comes as Edwards faces a grand jury investigation. On Friday a Raleigh TV station showed him and former law partner David Kirby at Raleigh-Durham airport walking off a plane belonging to Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a wealthy heiress and one-time friend of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Flight records showed the plane flew from RDU to the private northern Virginia airstrip at Mellon's home.

In 2008 Mellon's holding company gave $3.48 million to Alliance for a New America, a so-called 527 group tied to Edwards' presidential campaign. Prosecutors investigating Edwards have talked to attorneys for Mellon.

Charlotte lawyer Ken Bell, a former federal prosecutor, said Edwards' flight could cause an appearance problem, if not legal.

"It would create a danger of being accused of trying to influence a witness or obstruct justice," he said. "It's dangerous and perhaps inadvisable but not necessarily illegal."

The Politico's Ben Smith reported today that Andrew Young, the former aide to once claimed to be the father of Hunter's baby, is alleging that Mellon paid some of Rielle Hunter's bills.

Meanwhile, the Providence Road house stands empty. One neighbor even baked cookies for the woman she expected to be her new neighbor.

"I froze them," she said.

Enquirer: DNA tests show Edwards is the daddy

The National Enquirer, which has been all over the John Edwards' story since breaking it over a year ago, today claims DNA tests have proven that the former Democratic presidential candidate is the father of his mistress's baby.

In what the tabloid calls a BOMBSHELL WORLD EXCLUSIVE!, it says Edwards has secretly undergone a paternity test, and that it proves he's the father of Frances Quinn Hunter, Rielle Hunter's daughter who was born in February 2008.

The paper says lawyers for Edwards are "privately hammering out" child support payments. It cites "multiple sources" that they don't name.

Rielle Hunter, with daughter in tow, appeared before a grand jury in Raleigh on Aug. 6. Prosecutors are looking at whether Edwards misused campaign funds in any payments that may have been used as hush money.

A lawyer for Edwards could not be reached this morning. [UPDATE: Raleigh attorney Wade Smith, among those representing Edwards, declined to comment.]

Edwards has denied he's the father. In a statement last year, he wrote he had "not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby."

The Enquirer last year published photos it alleged showed Edwards holding the baby at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Edwards breaks silence in Post interview

Former Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards broke a long silence in an interview published online today in the Washington Post.

In his first extended interview since confirming an affair on ABC's Nightline last summer, he refused to discuss his mistress Rielle Hunter, her baby, his wife Elizabeth's new memoir or a grand jury probe into whether he illegally used campaign money to pay Hunter.

He did talk about a recent trip to El Salvador to build houses for the poor. But mostly, the paper said, he has spent "many long hours in the big house" in Chapel Hill.

He told the paper he has no plans to restore his reputation. That's not "something I'm focused on," he said. "The only relevance of it at all is my ability to help people," he told the Post. "That's the only reason it matters."

The story quoted a disappointed mother from Greene County where Edwards started a pilot program called College for Everyone that all but guaranteed a college education to kids who couldn't afford it. He ended the program a week after confirming his affair.

The paper also talked to residents of New Orleans who felt deceived after an aid program he promised in 2007 never fully materialized.

More Enquiring into Edwards affair

If Democrat John Edwards thought last week's interview with ABC would end the stories about his affair with a former campaign worker, he was wrong.

A one-time friend of Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, has been appearing on national TV alleging the affair lasted longer than Edwards suggested. He said in a statement that it lasted for only "a short time" 2006.

But Pigeon O'Brien, who describes herself as Hunter's former friend, told ABC and CBS that the affair began months before Hunter was hired. She said Hunter referred to the former N.C. senator as "Love Lips."

"She said that they had a very deep connection and that they were spending time together in a romantic and sexual way, very, you know, very early on and in a very intense way," O'Brien told ABC.

And the National Enquirer, which broke the story of the affair last October, plans to publish additional details this week.

Editor David Perel says the paper will address Edwards' denials that he knew about payments made to Hunter by Dallas lawyer Fred Baron, his friend and former campaign finance chairman. Here's what Edwards told ABC:

BOB WOODRUFF: There are reports that you have tried to cover up. They call it alleged hush money. That there was money paid to try, to cover up this affair. Was there?

EDWARDS: Uh, this is what I can tell you. I've never paid a dime of money to any of the people that are involved. I've never asked anybody to pay a dime of money, never been told that any money's been paid. Nothing has been done at my request. So if the allegation is that somehow I participated in the payment of money -- that is a lie. An absolute lie, which is typical of these types of publications.

WOODRUFF: You never even heard about that before?

EDWARDS: I've heard about it from reporters like you just in the last few days. It's the first I hear anything about it.

"We’re going to report this week ... that Edwards absolutely knew that Rielle was being paid and that Rielle told him she was being paid,” Perel says. "I don’t think that passed the smell test.”

Perel dismisses Edwards' claim that he had "no idea who that baby is" after the Enquirer published a photo it purported to be Hunter's baby during a late-night meeting at the Beverly Hilton last month.

"That was ridiculous," Perel said. "I have the advantage of watching that interview and knowing what I know. That's 100 percent Rielle's baby and he’s holding that baby at the Beverly Hilton.”

A lot of questions remain, including the whereabouts of former Edwards aide Andrew Young, who last year claimed Hunter's baby was his.

But Perel and his often-maligned paper, dismissed by Edwards as "tabloid trash," are enjoying the moment.

"Do (we) feel vindicated?" he says. "The answer to that would be yes."