John Edwards' mistress caused so much turmoil on his presidential campaign that one staffer messaged headquarters from the road pleading to be let off the "traveling freak show."
The comment came amid testimony that Edwards' girlfriend Rielle Hunter was lavishly paid by the campaign although the video webisodes she made were so poorly done that the campaign refused to use them.
Former campaign manager Nick Baldick told the court today that Hunter earned more than $100,000, for producing just a handful of campaign videos for the Web.
It was an arrangement he "concluded was probably not a very good deal," but which Edwards insisted on maintaining despite Hunter producing videos that did not "portray Mr. Edwards very well."
"I thought the webisodes were a disaster," Baldick told the court.
The staff was also roiled by their growing perception that Edwards was having an affair with Hunter and her growing demands for access.
One staffer, Ryan Montoya requested Baldick "free me from this traveling freak show" after frustrating interactions with Hunter and her production partner.
Edwards was asked by senior advisers in 2006 to stop traveling with Hunter to squash romance rumors. From then Baldick was supposed to approved all travel Hunter did with the campaign, but whenever Baldick would refuse to approve Hunter for a trip he would get a call from Edwards, he said.
John Edwards Trial: Focus Shifts to Rielle Hunter
Watch Video John Edwards Trial: Was Rielle Hunter 'Madly in Love'?
Watch Video John Edwards Trial: Rielle Hunter 'in Love'?
Watch Video "Nick, she's going on this trip," Baldick quoted Edwards' repeated order to him.
Edwards is on trial for allegedly using campaign donations to hide his mistress and her subsequent pregnancy. Edwards could be sentenced to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Earlier today, an assistant for Rachel "Bunny" Mellon told the court that just before his indictment last year Edwards asked the 101-year-old heiress for $3 million.
That was in addition to $725,000 she had already given to Edwards for his hush find and several million to Edwards' presidential campaign, superpac and a non-profit organization.
Tony Willis serves as Mellon's personal librarian and custodian of her correspondence. Mellon asked Willis to send a letter she dictated responding to a plea by Edwards asking "her for some additional money to get him established," he said.
"I understood her to say he asked for $3 million," Willis said, but Mellon denied the request saying "she couldn't provide the money."
Willis' testimony about the letter was made after a defense objection and the jury was excused. Lawyers from both sides made impassioned pleas about whether or not the letter should be admitted into the record.
The prosecution is trying to prove that Edwards willfully, personally and routinely asked Mellon for money, bolstering its claim that Edwards knew about the $725,000 Mellon gave him over the course his campaign to win the presidency between 2006 and 2008.
The letter is proof Edwards "alone went to Mrs. Mellon and trying to get $3 million more," argued prosecutor Robert Higdon.
The defense has argued that Edwards never asked Mellon for money directly, and any money requested by his aide Andrew Young was done in an attempt by Young to steal money from the wealthy heiress himself.
Edwards' lawyers said the letter came years after the presidential campaign and the existence of his relationship with Rielle Hunter and their baby was acknowledged, and after Mellon had been questions by the FBI. Defense lawyers argued the letter should not be admitted as evidence.
沒有留言:
張貼留言