A US FEDERAL grand jury has indicted former presidential candidate John Edwards after a two-year investigation into allegations he used donations to cover up an affair he was having.
Edwards admitted to an affair in August 2008. In January 2010, the LA Times reported that Edwards had issued a statement admitting he had fathered a child with former campaign videographer Reille Hunter.
US prosecutors accuse him of using hundreds of thousands of dollars from two donors to attempt to conceal the affair from his wife Elizabeth, who died of cancer in December 2010.
Prosecutors say that the money should have been declared publicly by his campaign fund because it supported his campaign bid. However, Edwards’ lawyers have argued that the money was a gift rather than a donation.
Edwards, who has twice run as a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, dropped out of the race for the party’s nomination in the 2008 campaign. He served as a senator for North Carolina from 1999 to 2005.
- Additional reporting from the AP
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