One of John Edwards' former advisers testified on the final day of the prosecution's case that Edwards desperately tried to strike a deal with presidential rivals to be named attorney general with the hope of one day becoming a Supreme Court justice.
Despite the latest revelation about his political behavior while keeping secret the existence of his mistress and their love child, Edwards seemed to be encouraged as the case against him wound down.
When the court recessed Wednesday, and Edwards learned who would testify today, he was overheard confidently asking his lawyer, "That's their case?"
One person the government did not call to testify was Edwards' mistress Rielle Hunter, the woman at the center of the case. Instead, they ended with Leo Hindery, a campaign adviser who said he knew little of the $1 million effort to cover up Edwards' tawdry affair.
Hindery said he believed Edwards' lie that the first stories about the affair were "untrue" and "rumors."
Hindery, a longtime Democrat operative, was part of Edwards' inner circle and was dispatched to contact Barack Obama's campaign, and later Hillary Clinton's campaign, to strike a deal when it was clear Edwards would not win the 2008 presidential nomination.
On Jan. 3, 2008, the night Obama won the Iowa caucuses, Edwards ordered Hindery to contact Sen. Tom Daschle, an Obama adviser. Edwards wanted to team up with Obama, trading his endorsement for the vice-president slot early in the campaign to strike a death blow to Clinton.
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Watch Video Daschle questioned the Edwards' campaign reasoning for broaching the topic with Obama following the first contest of the campaign and on the night Obama was savoring victory, but brought the proposal to his candidate. Obama rejected the deal.
By the end of January, the writing was on the wall for Edward's candidacy. He was trailing Obama and Clinton both in funding and delegates.
Again he looked to strike a deal, seeking a high profile position in exchange for an endorsement. Again, he assigned Hindery to do the work, reaching out to Obama, but also Clinton.
"If he couldn't be vice president," Hindery said Edwards believed then at least "he could be attorney general."
But if he were going to settle for attorney general, it was in service of a higher goal -- to be on the Supreme Court.
Hindery said Edwards would decide who to support "based on attorney general and that's who he would support." He would pick the candidate who could best "support his own evolution to the Supreme Court."
The book "Game Change" by Mark Halperin and John Heileman described a similar scenario with an amazed Daschle writing back to Hindery, "It's going to ambassador to Zimbabwe next."
Edwards dropped out of the race after a poor third place finish in South Carolina, but kept angling for a job. And according to prosecutors kept using donations from wealthy backers to hide Hunter.
"It was a sad day for me and Mr. Edwards," Hindery said of Edwards' decision to drop out. "I tried to be encouraging and support him as best I could."
In the end the Obama campaign rejected all of Edwards' advances, promising only the chance to make a speech at the Democratic National Convention. Nevertheless, Edwards continued to hang on to the hope that he might still might be named attorney general even after the National Enquirer published grainy images of him with Hunter and her baby.
Edwards is accused of illegally using campaign funds to hide Hunter and the baby. He claims any money he received to hide Hunter were personal gifts and he was motivated only to keep the affair a secret from his wife, not the government.
Hunter remains on the defense witness list and may yet still be called to testify on his behalf.
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