The Trials and Tribulations of John Edwards

Former Sen. John Edwards (AP)

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," May 4, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Remember former senator John Edwards, the two-time candidate for president who talked about how immoral it is that we have two Americas? Well, apparently, when he was preaching about morals, he skipped over the one that he did not think applied to him, cheating on his wife with a staffer, her name, Rielle Hunter. And tonight, there is more. Now Senator Edwards is being investigated to see whether he used campaign cash as hush money, paying Hunter to keep quiet about the affair.

Joining us live is Mike Baker, reporter for the Associated Press. Nice to see you, Mike. So Mike, what's the issue? What's going on with Senator Edwards?

MIKE BAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, right now, I think you've sort of summed up all we know. It's -- at this point, Senator Edwards sent us a statement yesterday, acknowledging that there's some sort of federal investigation going on. Beyond that, he said that he's cooperating, that he's providing documents and people necessary to lead (ph) it forward. But beyond that, he just said campaign funds. We're not sure exactly where federal investigators are going. The U.S. attorney here in Raleigh has declined to even confirm whether there's an investigation.

VAN SUSTEREN: What is it that -- how much money was paid to her out of -- I assume it's his PAC, or his campaign funds? And what was the stated purpose?

BAKER: Well, back in 2006, before Edwards actually started his campaign, he did -- as you said, he had his political action committee that he was using to sort of keep his profile. And during that time, he paid about $100,000 to Rielle Hunter's Web production and video production firm, and that lasted up until he began his campaign at the very end of that year.

Now, the big question that we've been focusing on has been this later payment in April 2007, which was obviously long after his campaign began, and that payment of $14,000 also went to Hunter. But around the same time, his campaign provided his PAC with $14,000. So there's some questions about what was going on in that exchange.

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VAN SUSTEREN: What was the purpose of that, Web production, as well?

BAKER: Well, in that April payment, the campaign said it was paying the PAC $14,000 for furniture, and then the PAC continued on and paid $14,000 to Hunter. And it didn't -- it doesn't describe in finance reports what that was for. An associate to Edwards has told us that it was -- that they were trying to purchase cutting room floor videotape, excess videotape that Hunter had shot while she was working with Edwards.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Where is Rielle Hunter? And is Senator Edwards still married or separated from his current wife, Elizabeth Edwards, who has a book coming out, incidentally, in about a week. Where are the two women?

BAKER: Well, where is Rielle Hunter is a good question. That's a question we've been asking ourselves. As for -- as for Elizabeth and John, from all indications they appear to be together. Elizabeth's book is coming out at the end of this week. I imagine she's going to be going on some speaking, some interviews, talking about the book. I imagine she'll be enlightening a little bit more about the state of their marriage and why she stood by John and what she's -- what she's going to do going forward.

VAN SUSTEREN: And of course, people know that what's going to happen in this case is that Rielle Hunter's going to get served with a subpoena before a grand jury likely if the senator is a target, and you say he is. Mike, thank you.

BAKER: Thank you very much.

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