Edwards Donor: I Warned Obama Camp About Affair

After rumors of an affair had already started to swirl and John Edwards’ presidential campaign unraveled, Edwards revealed to onetime donor Tim Toben that he still had his eye on a prestigious position in Barack Obama’s administration, should he be elected. Toben was shocked—so he warned the Obama campaign, the Chapel Hill developer testified at Edwards’ campaign finance trial today. Edwards told Toben he could find a position in Obama’s Cabinet or even as his running mate, an idea Toben—who knew about Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter and had even helped hide her once—found “astonishing,” he said.

"I thought he betrayed the trust of the people he spoke for," namely poverty-stricken Americans, Toben continued. So, after their dinner, Toben called Obama’s campaign director and advised him that he believed the tabloid rumors about Hunter and Edwards were true, and that the campaign should investigate further before offering Edwards a position, the AP reports. On the stand yesterday, Toben was the first person to mention the Edwards-Hunter sex tape in front of jurors, testifying that he and onetime aide Andrew Young had joked about how much the tape might be worth. (More John Edwards stories.)