If you’ve been following the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter scandal, by now you’ve heard of Fred Baron. He’s the former Edwards campaign finance chair who says he’s been paying for Rielle’s rent, transcontinental moves, and other living expenses, as well as those of Andrew Young and his family, since the story first broke in the National Enquirer last October. But the reason he’s been laying out at least $30,000 a month (allegedly) is not to cover up anybody’s affair or illegitimate child. He didn’t even know about any of that! No, he’s been acting purely out of sympathy for Andy & Rielle’s plight as victims of the tabloid press. Sure, why not set them up in a $3 million mansion in Santa Barbara out of the kindness of his own heart?
If Fred Baron wants people to think he’s a naive moron who’ll throw huge wads of his own money — certainly not campaign funds! — at any sob story that comes down the pike, that’s his business. But it certainly is tough to reconcile that image with his history as a savvy lawyer and political operative.
According to Baron’s Wikipedia entry, which as of this writing has not yet been deleted, he’s “one of America’s most prominent trial lawyers” and former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. And Wikipedia says this about his Dallas law firm, Baron & Budd (slogan: “Protecting What’s Right™”):
One academic estimated that Baron & Budd, along with Ness Motley, was one of two firms responsible for half of the hundreds of thousands of asbestos litigation claimants in the country.[2] Baron successfully convinced the United States Supreme Court to de-certify nationwide asbestos class action settlements involving future claims of people who are not yet ill, but who may later develop asbestos-related illnesses.[3] The decertification addressed the problem that asbestos-related illnesses like mesothelioma (a fatal cancer of the lining of the lung), have a latency period of 20-40 years from the date of exposure.[3]
I’m no lawyer, but I’d think a guy who could accomplish something like that would have to be pretty darn crafty!
In addition to his law career, Baron has been very active in politics as a fundraiser for the Edwards campaign and others. From Wikipeda again:
Baron has joked about the prominence he and other trial lawyers have in the Democratic Party. In a July 2002 speech, he noted a Wall Street Journal editorial that said that “the plaintiffs bar is all but running the Senate.” Baron pointed to the editorial and said, “Now I really, strongly disagree with that. Particularly the ‘all but.’”[7]
But now he’s an innocent naif who’s blundered into the middle of a huge sex scandal with strong hints of a shadowy coverup and financial chicanery? Hey, anything’s possible.
Interesting side note: According to Valleywag, Fred Baron is the father of Andrew Baron, co-founder of the popular(?) video blog Rocketboom. Fred provided the seed money for the project (over $800,000), and then sued his own son for repayment. Talk about tough love! But if nothing else, at least the Barons are responsible for introducing these to the world:
And here’s another odd coincidence: Check out former Rocketboomer Amanda Congdon giddily interviewing none other than… John Edwards! As he pointed out back in ‘06: “Communication over the Internet is becoming increasingly important.” Which makes it all the more odd that Edwards-related material keeps disappearing from the Internet. Apparently, the “back-and-forth interactivity” and “direct access to people without being filtered through the media” that Edwards spoke about can go only so far. So be sure to watch that video before it disappears too.
Updates:
- According to the NY Post, “friends of Andrew Young” say he’s a loyal enough guy to try to cover for Edwards. More importantly, I just realized who should play Young in the TV movie:
Uncanny! And, I’m guessing, affordable.
- People Magazine has an overview of “The Mysterious Other Woman, Rielle Hunter.” With regard to Rielle’s depiction in that recent Newsweek article (such as her quote about Elizabeth: “She does not give off good energy”),
BirdbrainPigeon O’Brien says:
“The person I’m seeing now confuses me… Where is Buddhist Rielle? She is a very grounded, spiritual, beautiful person, and I don’t know how to reconcile that with the woman in the Newsweek story.”
Lotta that going around lately. Everybody’s shocked, positively stunned.
- Sharon Waxman says the reason the Enquirer’s information has been so good is probably because they’ve been paying Rielle for it. Which might explain how they got that photo of Edwards and the baby, taken from inside the same room… But it would also assume that Rielle will do anything to avoid having to get a real job. Let’s not be too hasty!
- Lester Munson at ESPN.com: “Good God! John Edwards was having sex with the daughter of the guy who taught Tommy Burns how to kill horses by electrocuting them!” (For the insurance money.)
- The Washington Post has a roundup of j-o-u-r-n-a-l-i-s-t-s trying to explain why they waited so long to do any j-o-u-r-n-a-l-i-s-m.
- The latest NYDN story has lots of interesting tidbits about Rielle’s life in Santa Barbara. And apparently the Young family moved back to Chapel Hill last week. They sure do move around a lot. Is that where Rielle went too? Andrew did move his whole clan out to Californy to be with her and the baby, after all.
- NY Mag has a few clips from Rielle’s appearance in the 1987 Kurt Russell/Goldie Hawn comedy Overboard. I think she’s the blonde on the left. Of the screen, I mean.
- Speaking of which, via 23/6:
*With apologies to the Royal Guardsmen, and to the reader.
Related posts:
- Fred Baron’s Son Replies to Deceiver’s Informed Questions About Rocketboom The other day I asked what happened to the $800,000...
- How Much Does It Cost to Make a Rocketboom? Does anybody know how much it costs to start a...
- Pauly Shore Might Sue Sacha Baron Cohen Over Brüno Everyone likes to sue Sacha Baron Cohen, but I have...
- Sacha Baron Cohen Finally Runs into Something He Can’t Joke About From the “How Was I Supposed Ta Know?” file, the...
- Yet Another Rielle-Related Site Vanishes Yesterday the Newark Star-Ledger tried to talk to Rielle Hunter’s...
Pressure increasing… …check supply running low… …Rielle’s new-age crap getting more annoying… …desire to spill guts rising… …must…protect…Elizabeth….
John Edwards, where are you!…
A little birdie says that the Enquirer is preparing quite a bombshell on the “honey money” angle for next week’s issue….damn, you know they’ve got something up their sleeve for the Convention. Maybe that reputed videotape of JE squirming in the hotel bathroom?
So this is the idiot responsible for those annoying-as-hell commercials asking people with mesothelioma to call in and join their class-action lawsuit? Thanks buddy! After viewing those, and the same Girls Gone Wild commercials a few hundred thousand times, I finally broke down and got a DVR.
Is it just me, or should we all have been expecting this for a LONG time? This guy was an ambulance chasing civil litigator, who apparently surrounded himself with a healthy mix of other ambulance chasing civil litigators and new-age moonbats. And we’re surprised that immoral shenanigans were going on?
Blogger “Mondoreb” over at DBKP and Bloggernews.net makes a good argument for the case that Edwards’ Deputy Campaign Manager, Jonathan Prince, as well as Joe Trippi were those in his inner circle that knew of the Rielle affair early on and helped scrub Rielle-related info from the web and maintain the cover-up in general. See link:
http://www.bloggernews.net/117214
It is unfortunate that in July of 2008:
“Jonathan Prince, one of Edwards’ most senior advisers, agreed late last week to run the independent expenditure arm of the Democratic National Committee”
But then again, Prince seems to be well-versed in helping to facilitate “independent expenditures”.
See link:
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_9937776
Since it seems certain that Edwards was meeting up with Rielle and child at the Beverly Hilton on March 20th, 2008 (see Lee Stranahan’s Huffington Post article), it may be interesting to look at his FEC expenditure filings for March of 2008:
http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2008/M3/C00431205/B_PAYEE_C00431205.html
oh, sorry, not that it matters, but the above two “anonymous” postings were mine
Searching the Huffington post donation map finds a heavy John Edwards donor right down the street from Montross’ house.
http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=32430 archdale&zip=27517&search=Search
I spoke on the phone with Fred Baron this past weekend.
I believe that he did, in fact, act out of the goodness of his heart. He told me what happened and it’s believable to me.
He disputes the $15k a month figure.
If that’s the case, Lee, tell him I could use a hand myself!
Looks like Jonathan Prince’s time with Edwards was even more lucrative than I previously thought; see link:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5345.html
“Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards recently defended taking a lucrative book contract from a publisher controlled by Rupert Murdoch — whose News Corp. empire Edwards has sharply criticized — by insisting that “every dime” of his $500,000 advance went to charity.
Left unmentioned by Edwards, however, was that Murdoch’s HarperCollins paid portions of a $300,000 expense budget for the book to Edwards’ daughter and to a senior political aide, Jonathan Prince.
The sums paid to Cate Edwards and Prince, who are listed as co-authors on the little-noticed 2006 coffee table book, “Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives,” have not been made public but were confirmed by two sources with firsthand knowledge of the book deal.”
It’s nice that Jonathan Prince was helping Edwards write a book about what the idea of “Home” means, when Prince was the one who told Sam Stein back in the fall of 2007 first that he “didn’t have” the Webisodes and later contradicted himself:
“Jonathan Prince offered to let me and my editor, Tom Edsall, watch the videos - apparently unaware that at one point his campaign claimed not to have access to them. But there was a proviso: we could only view the videos in Prince’s presence.”
What’s this crap about “tabloid reporters” and “paparazzi” hounding the Youngs and Rielle Hunter? Both Baron and Edwards talked about that as the reason why they were relocated to California…. LONG before anyone was paying attention to this story except the National Enquirer.
I would say the assertion that they were being hounded is a BIG FAT lie. Proof positive: no photos of Young and wife, and only ONE (set) of Hunter… the ones where she looks like Camilla Parker Bowes. I suppose they think if they repeat it often enough, people will believe it.
***No, he’s been acting purely out of sympathy for Andy & Rielle’s plight as victims of the tabloid press. ***
Sooooo, he moved them from homespun North Carloina to the frying pan closer to the So cal tabloids? That just does not make sense.
Also, Andrew Young looks too Young to be involved with Rielle. I know stranger things have happened, but I’m just not feeling or buying it in any way, shape or form.
Based upon the honesty historically demonstrated by John Edwards and those near to him, I find myself compelled accept that statement at face value.
Now go about your business. Nothing to see here.
Hey, Mr. Baron, I could use a few bucks and a mansion! E-mail me.
I can’t help but laugh every time I see his name.
“Love lips”. “Midline Groove” (the philtrum, or space above your upper lip). John Edwards’ heavily Botoxed forehead in his ‘confession’.
There are a lot of subtle references or evidence of cosmetic medical procedures here.
I met John Edwards at a bar in 2006? Their ‘meet cute’ story just doesn’t seem to add up.
Maybe John Edwards and Rielle Hunter met at the doctor’s office while each was getting a touchup.
BTW, the Oprah page recognizing Cheri Young is also disappearing down the memory hole. The cached page is here, get it while you can.
“I spoke on the phone with Fred Baron this past weekend.
“I believe that he did, in fact, act out of the goodness of his heart.”
Goodness in a LAWYER’S heart??? Is that like the warm spot in Antarctica?
this is a new NYT story just posted, about the two mysterious lawyers, Gordon and Marple
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/us/politics/15edwards.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Vermillion: There are, believe it or not, good lawyers in the world. They may be a pain in the ass sometimes, but they still are good. Professions don’t always define a person. (Although this is coming from a child of a lawyer, so I’m pretty sure I’m biased.)
As for this scandal: The plot thickens. Again. I’m just waiting for the moment Elizabeth finally blows and Edward’s life goes to hell.
http://www.ocala.com/article/20080813/NEWS/808130342/1402/NEWS&title=Edwards__mistress_raised_in_Ocala
Now in this article, the “bar” has become a “fundraiser”…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/us/politics/15edwards.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Baron knows a lot more than he’s saying, but even he can’t keep this web of deceit from unraveling…
As my hubby opined last night…
There once was a fellow named Edwards
Who thought to himself, pointing headwards
I’m so damned smart
I won’t get caught like Hart
As he and Rielle headed bedwards
My hubby, the intellectual, is good for things like that.
That Amanda Congdon video so ticks me off. If that’s the stereotype for Young Republicans, then the stereotype for Young Democrats is Arrogant, Pompous, Know-It-All Ass-hats.