The drama of John Edwards’s trial “took a few more twists” as former staffer Andrew Young “admitted submitting misleading financial statements to a wealthy benefactor who thought he was helping the senator hide a mistress,” thew New York Times reports.

Young admitted asking Fred Baron, a wealthy Texas trial lawyer who was a fervent supporter of Edwards, to pay $28,261 for a BMW that had been bought for Rielle Hunter. However, the car had actually already been paid for with money from the heiress Rachel Mellon.

“The second day of testimony at the John Edwards campaign-financing trial was like sitting down to reread the juiciest and most salacious parts of Andrew Young’s book, The Politician. In other words, it was filled with exactly the kinds of allegations that the two-time presidential candidate never wanted aired in public again,” Diane Diamond reports.

Melinda Henneberger: “As star witnesses go, Young was none too shiny; he repeatedly got flustered, annoyed the judge by mumbling, and raced through those answers that were at variance with his tell-all book… Still, two crucial things Young said under oath Tuesday did ring true: His detailed description of how Edwards persuaded him to claim paternity for the child the candidate himself had fathered with Rielle Hunter was credible. And when Young said his motivation for agreeing to do such a thing was completely opportunistic — ‘I wanted my friend to become president because a lot of benefits go along with that’ — he was at his most convincing.”

Nadia Lockyer, wife of California Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D), resigned from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and spoke to the San Jose Mercury News about her drug addiction and “tortured extramarital affair with a methamphetamine addict.”

However, her account “raises serious questions” about her husband’s actions. “While she tried to defend him last week, saying that she holds responsibility for taking drugs, she did not deny her earlier claim that Bill Lockyer bought and supplied her with some of those drugs years ago.”

Lockyer “also revealed for the first time that she had sought dependency treatment in June 2010 — after winning a spot for the November runoff, not after the election was over, as previously reported. Bill Lockyer financed most of her campaign from his own political coffers, and of the $1.5 million he kicked in, more than two-thirds came after the June election. If he in effect bought her the office knowing she was addicted to drugs or alcohol, his own judgment — and his respect for the public he’s supposed to serve — are in serious question.”

Barely an hour into the first day of testimony in the John Edwards criminal trial, “sex and conniving had already surfaced” when defense lawyers had asked permission to mention in their opening statement a one-night stand that former aide Andrew Young, a married father of three, had with a co-worker in 2007, the Raleigh News and Observer reports.

Young wrote a tell all book about the Edwards scandal and is a key witness for the prosecution.

However, in a packed courtroom, the judge “muzzled any unprompted mentioning of Young’s alleged sexual liaison.”

With John Edwards finally facing a criminal trial over alleged campaign finance violations, Walter Shapiro raises the strong possibility that philanthropist and Edwards donor Bunny Mellon didn’t even know about mistress Rielle Hunter.

“Up to now, the pre-trial coverage has assumed that Mellon, like Baron, was intent on helping Edwards cover up his philandering. But the trial will raise the strong possibility — and you will have to trust me on the sourcing for this — that the then-97-year-old socialite was as ignorant of the existence of Rielle Hunter (or any other Other Woman) as any Democratic voter besotted with John Edwards. When she was asked for the money, delivered in seven installments beginning in June 2007, she apparently thought that she was donating in some round-robin fashion to the Edwards campaign, not covering up an affair.”

“If Bunny Mellon did not know about the affair, how could her contributions be personal rather than political?”

Rick Hasen: “But I don’t think that’s the right question.  Let’s suppose Mellon did not know.  Even if Mellon intended the money to help Edwards’ campaign, it is Edwards intent that matters here.”

As John Edwards’ campaign finance trial begins today, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds that just 3% of registered voters hold a favorable view of him.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is questioning the U.S. Secret Service about possible involvement of White House staff in the Colombian prostitution scandal, the Washington Times reports.

At issue: “Did the Secret Service reserve rooms at the Hotel Caribe or other hotels in Cartagena, Colombia for representatives of the WHCA or the White House Advance Team? If so, have records for overnight guests for those entities been pulled as part of the investigation? If not, why not?”

John Edwards goes on trial Monday “on charges he used illegal campaign contributions to cover up an affair with a mistress who became pregnant during his failed bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination,” Reuters reports.

Washington Post: “Investigators now suspect that as many as 21 foreign prostitutes were
brought by U.S. Secret Service and military personnel to the Hotel
Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, last week during a night of carousing, a
dramatic increase in the number of women previously disclosed by
government officials.”

John Edwards was criticized for getting $400 haircuts while running for president, but the New York Post reports he “now goes to Supercuts in Raleigh, NC, for a $12.95 job, employees say.”

Said one hairdresser: “We just talked about his hair.”

Jay Parmley, the executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, resigned “as questions mounted about a secret agreement to pay a former staffer to keep quiet about sexual harassment allegations,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

He denied harassing any employee and blamed right-wing political enemies for “spreading a false and misleading story.”

He added, “Even though I have not done anything wrong, it is clear to me that I need to move on.”

Secret Service agents sent to Colombia ahead of President Obama were sent home amid allegations of misconduct, CNN reports.

“The incident — reportedly related to involvement with prostitutes in Cartagena — overshadowed the start of the sixth Summit of the Americas, where the president was to focus on trade, energy and regional security.”

Ronald Kessler, author of In the President’s Service, said it’s “the biggest scandal in Secret Service history.”

According to Kessler, “One of the agents did not pay one of the prostitutes, and she complained to the police.”

Two legal experts have independently told Palmetto Public Record they expect the U.S. Department of Justice to issue an indictment against South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) on charges of tax fraud as early as this week.

With John Edwards denying reports he used a prostitution ring in New York City, New York magazine gives a brief history of Edwards denying things — many of which later proved true.

Former Sen. John Edwards “allegedly used the services of a call girl employed by accused Soccer Mom Madam Anna Gristina while he was running for President,” the New York Daily News reports.

Update: USA Today says Edwards denied the report through his lawyer: “Mr Edwards categorically denies that he was involved with any prostitute or service. These allegations are false, defamatory, and he puts those who would publish or repeat them on notice that they acting with actual malice by reporting or repeating them. He has demanded a complete retraction from the only source being quoted.”

Federal prosecutors granted John Edwards’ former mistress Rielle Hunter immunity from criminal charges for anything she says on the witness stand during the former presidential candidate’s upcoming trial, WRAL reports.

Jury selection is to begin April 12, and prosecutors say it’s possible Hunter will be asked to testify.

Former Minnesota Senate staffer Michael Brodkorb “claims he was fired because of an affair with former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and intends to prove other employees who had trysts with legislators were allowed to continue working,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Said his lawyer: “He intends to depose all of the female legislative staff employees who participated in intimate relationships, as well as the legislators who were party to those intimate relationships.”

The National Enquirer reports that John Edwards has reportedly decided “to have another child with the woman who destroyed his marriage,” according to the Daily Mail.

“Rielle Hunter is reportedly hoping to become pregnant before Edwards’ trial in April, after which he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in jail.”