Legal Commentary

More From the Rielle Hunter Train Wreck

By Jeralyn

It gets worse. GQ not only has the Rielle Hunter interview that will appear in the magazine I wrote about earlier, it has the video of her photo shoot (in which she doesn't look like she's hating being photographed without her pants or provocatively) and outtakes from the interview. Highlights:

• John Edwards asked her opinion as to whether he should endorse Obama (she didn't give one)

• Edwards lawyers asked her to swear in writing she didn't leak or sell information about them

• She hasn't spoken to her sister in 17 years (the sister that went on TV to talk about her) -- it sounds like she doesn't talk to anyone in her family :

(More...]

I don't view my sister as a betrayal. I haven't spoken to my sister in seventeen years. And there's a reason I don't speak to my sister. Because she's the kind of person who would go on national TV and make up stuff that she doesn't know anything about and talk about her family members like that. And I find that really sad. But I haven't spoken to her in seventeen years....The emotional reactions I had based upon my family and their actions is past tense. Now it doesn't get to me. I don't have reactions. I wish them nothing but the best.

• She has harsh words for Oprah for saying Johnny must be nuts to make a sex tape when he's running for President:

This has to do with Oprah's belief systems about sex, about public office, about men. It has all to do with Oprah and has nothing to do with John Edwards.

• As for when the sex tape was made, Rielle says it was Sept. 06 and he wasn't running for office.

In my signed affidavits with the court, I state, under oath, that the tape was made in September '06 and it was destroyed [mangled and cut] in December '06 in order to prevent anyone from seeing it. John Edwards was not running for any office, nor was he holding any public office at that time.

Edwards made five trips to Iowa in the first six months of 2006. (He made 22 between 2005 and April, 2007.) What did she think he was doing, looking to buy a farm?

The trip was Edwards fifth through Iowa this year. He vowed to continue to be a familiar face. "All I have to say is we like Iowa and Elizabeth and I obviously have a lot of friends here," Edwards said.

Her first check for her webisodes of Edwards came in July, 2006. This Newsweek writer met her in Iowa during July, 2006 when she was filming.

The first time I laid eyes on Rielle Hunter, I could tell she was a story. She had frizzy blond hair with DARK roots, wore bright nail polish and moved like someone who knew how to work a room. She was on a cramped commuter flight and she was flirting with a candidate for president of the United States. It was July 7, 2006. I'd been sent to Iowa to write a piece on John Edwards. We were on our way to Des Moines, where I would be the only national reporter following him around the state for two days.

...She showed up at his first event that day in Des Moines with a video camera. She was trying to get as close to the candidate as she could. "Does she work for the campaign?" I asked Edwards's press secretary, Kim Rubey. "Oh, she's working on a documentary project," said Rubey. "We're not sure if it's going to work out." But it was soon clear that she was on Team Edwards. When it came time to drive to the next event, she rode in the car with the candidate. I drove behind in a rental car.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 15, 2010 (boomark / email).