Ex-aide: Edwards thinks he can come back

The former John Edwards aide whose recent tell-all book chronicles the former Democratic presidential candidate’s extramarital affair and then fall from grace said Thursday that Mr. Edwards still believes he has a political future.

“He still has a sense of being bulletproof,” former aide Andrew Young told The Washington Times’ “America’s Morning News” radio show. “He thinks … he’s going to come back and have something to offer the world.”

Mr. Young spoke the same day the National Enquirer reported a North Carolina grand jury will indict Mr. Edwards, 56, in connection with using campaign funds to pay mistress Rielle Hunter and cover up the affair.

Mr. Young — who for nearly two years helped conceal Mr. Edwards’ affair and child with Miss Hunter — said he was interviewed by the grand jury and described the panel’s investigation as an exacting process with flowcharts and time lines.

He said that outsiders have no way of knowing whether an ultrasecret grand jury will hand down an indictment but that he would be “surprised” if this one did not.

Mr. Young — whose book is titled “The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’ Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down” — said he was not sure whether Mr. Edwards improperly used campaign money to pay Miss Hunter. However, he said Miss Hunter was a paid videographer for a political action committee about five months after starting a sexual relationship in 2006 with Mr. Edwards. The 56-year-old former North Carolina senator’s wife, Elizabeth, was at the time diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Mr. Young said he hid the affair, which included him and his wife keeping Miss Hunter in seclusion, because he became “seduced” by national politics and rationalized it by saying it was “for a greater good.”

He said he was proud to be a part of Mr. Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign and that the two-time presidential candidate “did a lot of good things.”

However, he became disillusioned and angry when Mr Edwards reneged on a promise to expose his affair.

“I despise him,” Mr. Young said.