With 32 reporters in Beijing covering the Olympics, it's nice to see the New York Times could afford two to the John Edwards scandal. And look what they turned up: a front page-worthy story that shows Edwards' camp might have been involved in lying to the press about Rielle Hunter! Though everybody but the National Enquirer was ignoring them at the time, two lawyers issued separate statements denying the scenario: Hunter's attorney said his client wasn't carrying Edwards' child, and former campaign aide Andrew Young's attorney said he was the father of the child. Now, it seems these two attorneys might have a connection that all ties back to Edwards, with money strewn along the way. Hey, this is what happens when you decide to investigate, isn't it?

The lawyers are linked through Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas lawyer and former finance chairman for the Edwards campaign who was a key player in the campaign’s response to the scandal. Mr. Gordon has worked with Mr. Baron on class-action personal injury cases, and Ms. Marple helped defend a lawsuit brought against both men and their law firms by an asbestos manufacturer.

After initially saying that he did not know how the lawyers were chosen to represent Ms. Hunter and Mr. Young, Mr. Baron acknowledged that he might have played a role.

The revelations of ties among the lawyers emerged through public records and interviews with people close to Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter, which suggested that their affair went on longer than Mr. Edwards admitted and that the effort to conceal it by Mr. Edwards’s inner circle was much more extensive than has been reported.

And about some of that cash sent Hunter's way?

The review found that Mr. Edwards’s political action committee went to unusual lengths to make a final $14,000 payment to Ms. Hunter’s film company months after its contract with the committee had ended. The payment was issued while the committee was short on cash and could pay its bills only after receiving thousands of dollars from Mr. Edwards’s presidential campaign and donations from four people, including Mr. Baron’s wife.

And now that those loose ends are tied together, how about some "answers that aren't really answers but might as well be":

After The National Enquirer reported in October 2007 that Mr. Edwards had had an affair, Mr. Baron helped to relocate Mr. Young and Ms. Hunter. Mr. Baron, who made millions pressing asbestos lawsuits, has long supported Mr. Edwards, a fellow lawyer who opposed efforts in the Senate to rein in damage awards in liability cases.

Although he said he used his own money to pay for Mr. Young and Ms. Hunter to move to California, Mr. Baron initially said he did not know how they had chosen their lawyers.

But he has since offered conflicting explanations about his involvement in arranging for the two lawyers to step in and effectively defuse an accusation that threatened to derail Mr. Edwards’s political career. Because neither Ms. Hunter nor Mr. Young have spoken publicly about it, the statements issued by their lawyers remain the only record of their denials that Mr. Edwards fathered Ms. Hunter’s child.

On Wednesday, Mr. Baron said he might have directed Ms. Hunter to Mr. Gordon.

“I have this recollection of somebody asking me for lawyers in New York, and I remember naming three or four, and he must have been one of them,” Mr. Baron said. Referring to Ms. Hunter, he added, “It was either her who called or somebody on her behalf.”

And on Thursday, Mr. Baron also provided a vague answer to the question of whether he was involved in introducing Mr. Young to Ms. Marple, who represented Mr. Young for a brief time and is no longer involved in the case.

“I remember getting a call from Pam and her telling me that she was representing him,” Mr. Baron said. “I may have sent him over there, but on the other hand I may not have. I don’t have an accurate recollection.”

Asked whether he had lent Ms. Hunter and Mr. Young any money, Mr. Baron said, “I have a brief recollection of giving someone some cash. My assumption is I loaned some small amount of money to the both of them.” Ms. Marple declined to comment on her representation of Mr. Young. Mr. Gordon, Ms. Hunter’s lawyer, said: “Ms. Hunter called me. I represent her and only her, as I would any client.”

[NYT]