There’s more than meets the eye to Fred Baron, the man who admitted he paid money to John Edwards’ ex-mistress Rielle Hunter and former employee, Andrew Young.

The MSM is reporting that Baron was Edwards’ 2008 national campaign finance chairman, but the ties between the two go back much further, all the way to 1998, to Edwards’ run for senator in North Carolina.

Edwards, a successful personal injury lawyer, was a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates. In order to enter, members had to score a $1 million verdict. According to Lowell Ponte, who wrote “John Edwards: A Working Man’s Nightmare”, the Inner Circle, along with Edwards, contributed 86% of the $9 million which was used to defeat incumbent Lauch Faircloth. Ponte, [story with link], wrote that prior to the Senate race Edwards had little interest in politics:

Prior to his election Edwards had shown little interest in politics, not even bothering to vote in many elections. As a U.S. Senator, Edwards’ disinterest continued. Although assigned to the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, he seldom attended its meetings unless some important witness brought out network television cameras or an issue before the committee was of special interest to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA).

According to Ponte, Edwards was being groomed by Baron to become the “first trial lawyer President”.

According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, since the 1990 election cycle lawyers have made political contributions of more than $470 million, with more than 71 percent of this money going to Democratic campaigns and committees.

Fred Baron, a wildly sucessful personal injury lawyer from Dallas, Texas, and friend of Edwards since 1998, served as President of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in 2001 and ‘02. According to Ponte, Baron’s organization provided up to 40% of the Democratic party’s campaign contributions and that this may have contributed to Edwards, a newly elected Senator with no prior political experience, ending up on Al Gore’s short list of VP picks in the 2000 race. Ponte also claimed that “virtually every penny of Edwards political contributions from 1998 to 2004 has come from trial lawyer-linked sources”.

Ponte wrote that Edwards had taken Baron’s money and done Baron’s bidding and that Baron had begun to see Edwards as “a racehorse he could ride into the Oval Office of the White House”.

Baron did not yet own the entire Senate, just the Democratic minority. But one member who had taken his money and done his bidding was Senator John Edwards, whom Baron had begun to see as the racehorse he could ride into the Oval Office of the White House. Edwards had even gone to the mat and successfully blocked a bill that would have impeded trial lawyer lawsuits against companies when people there were injured by a terrorist attack. Edwards has defended the trial lawyer ideal of allowing all lawsuits all of the time, without limit.

Edwards, who had the 2000 Al Gore VP short list feather in his cap, ran for President in 2004, then ended up as Kerry’s running mate. Ponte wrote that internal polling showed Edwards wasn’t likely to be relected to a second term in his home state of North Carolina. Edwards’ 2004 presidential campaign was then “launched” by Baron and his “coterie of other wealthy trial lawyer friends, and their fleet of corporate jets owned by six law firms, including Baron’s Learjet Lawyer Airways”.

Baron chaired the finance committe for Edwards’ 2004 presidential campaign. He was also a major fundraiser for John Kerry’s campaign who then co-chaired Kerry’s Victory 04. In 2000, Edwards had made it from first time Senator with no political experience to Gore’s VP short list. By 2004, Edwards was picked by Kerry, (Baron was co-chairman of Kerry’s campaign), to be his running mate.

In 2004, Ramesh Ponnuru wrote a piece for the NRO, “Robber Baron, John Edwards Sleazy Friend”. Ponnuru, [story with link], had this interesting observation back in 2004: “Edwards’s selection by Kerry has renewed the debate over tort reform and whether trial lawyers have too much power.”

Ponnuru wrote about Baron’s “controversial role” in the decades long asbestos lawsuits that raked in millions for Baron’s firm, Baron and Budd.

The blog, Texas Blue, posted an article on January 8, 2007, about Baron, Edwards’ 2008 national campaign finance chairperson, throwing a fundraiser for Edwards in Dallas, seven days after Edwards officially announced he was running in the 2008 presidential election:

“The evening was filled with wine, dinner, and talk of the plans for the 08′ Presidential campaign! The fundraising pace for Edwards currently exceeds the rate he carried in 2004 in a noticeable way. Campaign staff during the event commented that fundraising goals are continually exceeded in a big way at each event. Even the turn-out was very impressive, showing that Texas Democrats are ready to support Edwards straight into the White House.”

From Dmagazine, July, 2007 on Fred Baron:

“He and his wife define “power couple” in Dallas. Now the lawyer looks to win the White House for John Edwards.”

Was this “win” truly for John Edwards, or was it for Baron and his wealthy cronies who backed Edwards’ multiple bids to be President?

Dmagazine wrote that “this year he’s (Baron) the fundraising muscle” for Edwards which was why Baron is “temporarily based in Chapel Hill”.

The night before Baron was outed as the money man in the Edwards affair, DBKP posted this article:
John Edwards Scandal: Is Fred Baron the Enquirer “Hush Money” Man?

Is Fred Baron, a wealthy trial lawyer from Dallas, TX and finance chair of John Edwards presidential campaign, the “hush money” man the National Enquirer says “funneled payments to mistress, Rielle Hunter, and former worker, Andrew Young?

The Enquirer left a trail of clues in its latest print edition to its on-line story [THE PHOTOS EVERYONE'S BEEN WAITING FOR!, to the ID of the "hush money" man.

Could it be Fred Baron, like John Edwards, a wealthy trial attorney?

We cited an article in the Wall Street Journal, "Are You Registered to Sue? The Floridafication of American politics by John Fund. Fund, [link to story here], wrote:

“Democrats are certain to outgun the Republicans in the legal arms race. One reason they were able to deploy 10,000 lawyers is the tight connection they enjoy with the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. This year, ATLA became the largest single contributor to federal candidates, almost exclusively to Democrats. Fred Baron, a recent ATLA president, told a seminar in July that he objected to an editorial in this paper claiming that “the plaintiffs bar is all but running the Senate.” He pointed to the editorial and said, “Now I really, strongly disagree with that. Particularly the ‘all but.’”

Baron released a statement last Friday in the Dallas Morning News that he was the one who paid money to Edwards’ ex-mistress Reille Hunter. According the paper, Baron said he made the decision “on his own”:

“He (Baron) said Ms. Hunter and another Edwards aide, Andrew Young, who claimed paternity of Ms. Hunter’s child, were being dogged by tabloid reporters chasing rumors of the affair and pregnancy.

“I made a decision on my own, without talking to Edwards or anybody, to try to help them move to a community to try to get away from those folks,” Mr. Baron said.”

Was Baron, the benevolent benefactor of Edwards six-year crusade to become President, being altruistic in regards to paying money to Hunter and Young?

From the Dallas Morning News:

Mr. Baron said the entire episode was tragic.

“John Edwards is an extraordinary human being who made an egregious error,” he said.

“I feel sad because I know John Edwards so well,” Mr. Baron said. “In life we all make mistakes. … It breaks my heart if this is going to disqualify him from being a public servant, because he would be a great one.”

Tragic in more ways than one, at least to Baron and the scores of trial lawyers and their families who contributed to Edwards’ multiple campaigns. Baron and his cronies had literally poured millions into Edwards’ campaign coffers. A more cynical view of Baron’s benevolence would be Baron’s payola was an attempt to hide Edwards’ peccadillos from prying eyes.

Young, a former operations director in Edwards campaign camp and longtime friend, moved his entire family, wife and kids, to Santa Barbara along with a very pregnant Hunter. According to sources, they all ended up ensconced in a $4 million mansion in a swank area, the type of real estate neither Hunter or Young could afford. While both Hunter and Young claimed Young was the father of the baby back in December, neither one has spoken to media since. If Edwards is telling the truth, that the baby isn’t is, why aren’t Hunter and Young coming forth now, after all, neither one of them are public figures. Why this need to hide when you’ve got nothing to hide?

As for news stories that Baron knew both Hunter and Young for “years”, this seems curious as Edwards’ claimed he met Hunter in 2006, and that their affair was “short” and ended the same year. Hunter never “worked” for Baron. She was purportedly an independent contractor for the campaign, her production company, Midline Groove. Young was a long time friend of Edwards, the same time span as Baron, from the late 1990’s, so it is concievable that Baron knew Young “quite well”.

As for Fred Baron, it’s fairly apparent that he and Edwards were bound together in a mutual quest to get Edwards into the White House beginning in 2000. Eight years and millions of dollars of contributions later, Edwards failed to deliver. Edwards, before he was caught by the Enquirer sneaking into Rielle Hunter’s Beverly Hilton Hotel room on the night of July 21, was being touted as a possible VP pick by Obama or a top spot in his administration. Those ambitions were blown to the wind when Edwards was cornered by Enquirer reporters after he left her room at 2:40am and then ran and hid in the men’s room in order to evade questions.

Source – Discoverthenetworks.org – John Edwards’ Inner Circle
Source – Discoverthenetworks.org – Fred Baron Expanded Profile
Source – National Review – Ramesh Ponnuru – Robber Baron
Image – Cash TP