Edwards Backer Paid Mistress to Move

A former Democratic Party official said yesterday that he paid John Edwards' ex-mistress to leave North Carolina, the Dallas Morning News reports. Fred Baron, a Dallas lawyer who led the party finance committee for 4 years, said he was trying to keep Rielle Hunter from tabloid reporters. “I made a decision on my own, without talking to Edwards or anybody, to try to help them move to a community to try to get away from those folks,” said Baron.

Edwards said during a television interview that he knew nothing about the payments. Baron, a frequent Democratic donor, said he used his own money, not campaign funds, to send Hunter packing—but did not say how much. “I feel sad because I know John Edwards so well,” he said. “John Edwards is an extraordinary human being who made an egregious error.” (More John Edwards stories.)