Multiple sources now confirm The ENQUIRER’s report that a federal grand jury is investigating possible misuse of presidential campaign funds by John Edwards to pay off his mistress.
U.S. Attorney George Holding revealed yesterday he "was not going to confirm or deny any investigation" regarding Edwards that was first reported by the ENQUIRER earlier this week.
A Federal grand jury did convene on Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to multiple local reports. Grand jury proceedings are kept secret. Attorneys are liable for criminal prosecution if they discuss such investigations in public or to the press.
Prominent Raleigh defense attorney and John Edwards’ mentor Wade Smith declined to comment on whether he was representing Edwards before the grand jury investigation.
"I’m at a place where I cannot make any comment to confirm or deny," Smith said. "I can’t say anything. It’s possible, at some later point, I can."
The disgraced 2-time Presidential candidate began his career working for Wade Smith’s law firm and they are long time friends.
Last summer, the NATIONAL ENQUIRER caught Edwards visiting his mistress Rielle Hunter in the Beverly Hills Hilton. After vigorously denying the affair for months, Edwards admitted the affair on national television in August after the ENQUIRER published spy photos of Edwards holding his love child earlier that week.
Edwards has also denied paying either campaign staffer Andrew Young, who claims to be the child’s father or Rielle Hunter, his admitted mistress, any funds from the campaign war chest. Fred Baron, a longtime Edwards supporter, claimed to have provided the hush money. Baron died last fall.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bruce, who is second in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh, also declined to comment.
"We neither confirm nor deny ongoing investigations," Bruce stated.
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