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Defense challenges witness who turned on Edwards

By Anne Blythe, McClatchy Newspapers –

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The political theater of the John Edwards trial turned to psychological drama Tuesday as defense attorneys used question after question to show that Chapel Hill builder Tim Toben made many disparaging remarks against the former presidential candidate and helped his disgruntled former political aide shape the message of his tell-all book.

Toben, a neighbor of Andrew Young who helped spirit a very pregnant Rielle Hunter out of town in late December 2007, was a strong witness for the government on Monday.

Toben, the developer of Greenbridge condominiums in Chapel Hill, testified that Edwards called him after he drove Hunter and Andrew and Cheri Young to a private jet port at Raleigh-Durham Airport in the early morning darkness for the start of their hopscotching across the country, trying to outrun National Enquirer reporters.

His testimony put Edwards back in the middle of what prosecutors contend was an attempt to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

But on Tuesday, defense attorney Allison Van Laningham turned the tenor of the trial back to one that was as much John Edwards versus Andrew Young as it was the government versus John Edwards.

Van Laningham came forward with dozens of emails and text messages exchanged between Toben and Young. The two men, each disillusioned by Edwards for different reasons, dished up many disparaging remarks about the former senator and his cancer-stricken wife. Toben referred to Edwards as a “pathetic little man” and used “skeezzzzze,” a word he made up that encompasses sleaze.

He called Elizabeth Edwards “a power-hungry control freak” and said she and her husband “drove each other mad.”

Toben, who had been a financial supporter of Edwards early in his 2008 presidential campaign, became an Obama supporter after learning of Hunter’s pregnancy.

In the summer of 2008, Toben said he cautioned the Obama campaign not to seriously consider Edwards as a potential U.S. attorney general, an idea being circulated among media outlets.

“I thought he betrayed the trust of the people he spoke for,” Toben said, adding that he did not know why someone with a 4-month-old baby born out of wedlock would seriously seek such a high-profile office.

Toben also had many email exchanges with Young about how to shape the message of his book “The Politician,” suggesting that Young put Edwards in as negative a light as possible.

Toben also acknowledged that Andrew Young told him about having “a videotape” of Edwards and Hunter that could bring him a lot of money, though none of the testimony identified the tape as a purported sex tape.

Toben said he did not know Young had an agent for that tape, but he said he did not think Young tried to sell it.

Toben also said he was not aware until recently that Young had taken in nearly $1 million from Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and Fred Baron in 2007 and 2008.

Nor was he aware that Young was making other money while working for Greenbridge development, selling contracts for the property and making nearly $110,000 for his work.

Van Laningham pointed out that Toben and Young had written snide comments about Edwards going to Haiti after an earthquake ravaged the country, trying to freshen his image as a crusader to eradicate poverty.

But Toben offered an image of Edwards that was less than flattering for the defense. Toben said he admired anyone who worked in such impoverished areas, but such work took long-term commitments, not a one-day or two-day drop-in.

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