Share
RALEIGH An ex-aide to John Edwards who claimed he fathered a child born to the mistress of the two-time Democratic presidential candidate spent Wednesday in a federal courthouse, but declined to talk with a reporter about an investigation into his former boss.
With his lawyer at his side, Andrew Young arrived about 8:30 a.m. at the building in Raleigh where a grand jury was meeting. The longtime Edwards loyalist simply smiled as he went by and declined to comment. He did not leave through a public entrance, and his attorney, David Geneson, did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press.
A few months before the crucial 2008 caucuses in Iowa, where Edwards placed second to eventual President Obama, Young publicly declared that he was the father of Rielle Hunter's baby. Edwards has admitted to an affair with Hunter that he says ended in 2006. That year, Edwards' political action committee paid Hunter's video production firm $100,000 for work. Then the committee paid an additional $14,086 on April 1, 2007.
Edwards, who represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate from 1998 until he ran for vice president in 2004, acknowledged in May that federal investigators are looking into how he used campaign funds. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh has declined to confirm or deny an investigation.
Young hasn't spoken publicly since he said he was the father in 2007 and has repeatedly ignored requests for interviews.
John Murphy, a spokesman with St. Martin's Press, said Young signed a book deal with the publisher last week, but he declined to discuss the details.
Edwards adamantly denied during his confessional interview with ABC News last summer that he had fathered Hunter's child, and he welcomed a paternity test.
