John Edwards Extramarital Affair - Rielle Hunter and The Edwards Campaign

Rielle Hunter and The Edwards Campaign

In December 2006, Newsweek reported that Hunter had been hired by the Edwards campaign to produce a series of webisodes that portrayed behind-the-scenes life on the campaign trail. Hunter had pitched the idea of creating the series to Edwards when she met him at a bar in New York, U.S., where the politician was attending a business meeting. The campaign paid Hunter's production company, Midline Groove, over USD100,000 for the short documentaries that were uploaded to YouTube upon completion. In 2006, Business Week included one of the episodes as a feature in a web video.

The first apparent mention, in print form, of a possible Edwards/Hunter affair, appeared in the New York Post on August 27, 2007. The page-six feature published a blind gossip item that asked: "Which political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture." The mention in the Post started a tabloid and blogosphere investigation that eventually led to accusations against Hunter and Edwards.

In September 2007, Sam Stein, a political reporter for The Huffington Post, reported that the Hunter web documentaries had been removed from the internet and were no longer accessible. Representatives from the Edwards campaign stated that the material could not be used due to campaign finance law. Several days later, The Huffington Post reported that the videos had been reposted to YouTube by an anonymous user.