Feds Probing John Edwards Campaign Contributions

This really should come as no surprise. There were signs that John Edwards was being less than truthful about his relationship with Rielle Hunter and how she came to be paid off. Now, federal investigators are wondering whether Edwards used campaign funds from his failed Presidential bid to pay off Hunter.

They're sifting through the records, and Edwards says that the investigators wont find any improprieties. Given how often Edwards has lied to the public, and to his wife Elizabeth, about his affair, I don't think anyone should take anything he says seriously. It will be difficult to pick apart the financial trail, particularly because nonprofits aren't subject to the same disclosure rules as corporations, but if I were Edwards, I wouldn't be going to bank on exoneration just yet.

There's also speculation that Elizabeth knew that John was using campaign funds to keep Rielle quiet.

That's bad news for the Edwards clan. Then again, so is gaming the so-called campaign finance laws that have investigators so suspicious:

Laws prohibit candidates from spending campaign money on personal expenses they would have incurred had they not been running for office. But nonprofits created to support a candidate or his message have different requirements.

The Alliance for a New America, the group that received Mellon's millions, was kept at arm's length from Edwards, a requirement of campaign finance law. Nonprofits known as 527 groups primarily pay for media messages that closely align with a candidate's stance.

The alliance was launched by Nick Baldick, Edwards' campaign manager in 2004. At least one donor, San Francisco attorney Jim Finberg, said he was advised the money would pay for ads in Iowa supporting universal health care. He knew the group was linked to Edwards; by law, however, Edwards couldn't be involved in the group's activities.

According to Federal Election Commission filings, the alliance in 2008 paid $3.3 million in “political consulting” costs to a limited liability corporation called AFNA. That LLC was registered in Virginia in 2004 and dissolved in 2008. Efforts to reach anyone associated with the company failed. Baldick could not be reached.

Edwards partly funded his unofficial launch into the Democratic primary race with funds from a different nonprofit he started in 2005.

The Center for Promise and Opportunity, a nonprofit organization allowed to shield donors' identity but still make political expenditures, paid for much of Edwards' early groundwork in New Hampshire and Iowa.

The organization's statement of purpose, filed with its tax disclosures, never mentioned Edwards, even though Edwards was the center's honorary chairman, according to 2006 media reports.

“They play this charade. Refrain from saying they are a candidate, so they don't have to follow the rules,” said Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group. “They're gaming the system. If they play carefully enough, they can avoid running afoul of the law.”

In 2006, Edwards traveled the nation, walking picket lines and talking to crowds about poverty and his regret in voting to fund the war in Iraq, travel paid for by the Center for Promise and Opportunity.

The center also paid for Edwards' trips abroad, where he met with foreign leaders and visited developing nations plagued by squalor. Rielle Hunter was at his side filming.

UPDATE:
Hot Air also notices the investigations.