Key figure in cover-up says Edwards should have been tried again

Jefferson, N.C. The Charlotte interior decorator who helped funnel money to an aide of John Edwards to help cover up the presidential candidate's affair says he's disappointed that federal prosecutors have ended the criminal case against Edwards.

Bryan Huffman, a close friend of 101-year-old Virginia heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, told WRAL News in an exclusive interview that he and Mellon felt "basically duped" when they learned that checks from Mellon that Huffman forwarded to Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife went for the upkeep of Edwards' pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, and not to help his 2008 presidential campaign.

"I had no idea what that money was for," he said, adding that Mellon was likewise in the dark about how $725,000 of her money had been spent.

She was taken advantage of in a way, and all she was trying to do was help the country, he said.

Prosecutors accused Edwards of using nearly $1 million from Mellon and Texas trial lawyer Fred Baron to keep Hunter quiet and away from the media during the early portion of the 2008 campaign. After a month of testimony and nine days of deliberations, however, a jury last month found Edwards not guilty of accepting illegal campaign contributions from Mellon in 2008.

Jurors deadlocked on five other charges, including whether money Mellon sent in 2007 was an illegal campaign contribution, and prosecutors said last week that they wouldn't retry Edwards.

"I did think that the jurors did not connect the dots," Huffman said. "I do think there was guilt.

"Campaign finance is a joke."

Huffman corroborated much of the story Young told jurors in his five days on the witness stand during Edwards' trial, including that Mellon devised the back-channel means to deliver checks so her lawyer and financial adviser wouldn't question them. The checks were made out to Huffman for things like antique chairs and cabinets, but he merely endorsed them and forwarded them to Young's wife, who deposited them under her maiden name. One check was even delivered in a box of chocolates.

"She always grew up with the sense that, 'Ive been given a lot, and I need to take care of the country that has been given to me,' he said of Mellon. "She wanted to continue to support and give, so when Andrew called for the money, she said she could go through her personal account without going through legal adviser and managers.

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Key figure in cover-up says Edwards should have been tried again