If you're new to DBKP, you may want to subscribe to the DBKP.com RSS feed. Thanks for stopping by!

Fred Baron’s ties to the DNC run deep. With John Edwards exiting the race his former National Finance Chair in ‘04 and ‘08 has turned his attention to Barack Obama. With Baron’s admitting he paid money to Edwards’ ex-mistress to move across the country to have a baby, we wondered, does Obama need this type of “new friend”?

Baron has been seen hobnobbing with high-powered Dems in Denver during the DNC convention. According to the Dallas Morning News, Baron isn’t acting in any “official” capacity, only as a “helper” to Obama’s campaign.

DBKP looked into the kind of “help” Baron’s known for in the DNC and the “help” he’s recently admitted to the MSM: secret payments to John Edwards’ ex-mistress, Rielle Hunter.

According to author Lowell Ponte, Baron began “funding” candidates in 1996, contributing “soft money” to the Democratic party and candidates. Baron’s association with the Clintons in ‘98 included a fundraiser that netted a cool $500,000. A few days later Bill Clinton was a guest at Baron’s Aspen, Colorado, home. The Dallas, TX based Baron was equally busy in the state of North Carolina helping John Edwards beat an incumbent for a seat in the Senate.

Baron was elected President of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in 2000. According to Ponte, Baron, Baron’s wife Lisa Blue, and others linked to Baron’s former firm, Baron and Budd, donated nearly 2.5 million to Dem candidates and committees. Some speculate that Baron’s protege, John Edwards, a first time Senator with no prior public service, wound up on Al Gore’s VP short list in 2000 because of Baron.

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.

Baron and a cadre of other wealthy trial attorney friends backed Edwards’ 2004 bid for the President after internal polling in North Carolina predicted voters were unlikely to re-elect the first time Senator. Baron served as Edwards’ national campaign finance chairman, the same position he held in Edwards’ 2008 Presidential run. Baron was also named co-chair of Kerry-Edwards 04′ Victory Committee.

Baron’s “fundraising” role has been largely ignored by the MSM even after Baron admitted he had been secretly “supporting” John Edwards ex-mistress Rielle Hunter.

Edwards publicly admitted to an affair on ABC’s Nightline on August 8.

WOODRUFF: There are reports that you have tried to cover up. They call it alleged hush money. That there was money paid to try, to cover up this affair. Was there?

EDWARDS: Uh, this is what I can tell you. I’ve never paid a dime of money to any of the people that are involved. I’ve never asked anybody to pay a dime of money, never been told that any money’s been paid. Nothing has been done at my request. So if the allegation is that somehow I participated in the payment of money — that is a lie. An absolute lie, which is typical of these types of publications.

WOODRUFF: I do need to tell you though through ABC investigation there has been evidence, or we’ve been told that there, about $15,000 a month has been paid to Miss Hunter, so that she could actually live out in California. In fact that money was from Fred Baron, who was your national finance chair. Is that correct?

EDWARDS: I don’t know. I told you just a moment ago, I know absolutely nothing about this.

WOODRUFF: You never even heard about that before?

EDWARDS: I’ve heard about it from reporters like you just in the last few days. It’s the first I hear anything about it.

On the same day that Edwards admitted his affair on ABC, the Dallas Morning News published Baron’s version of his involvement in Edwards’ affair. Baron claimed he had “helped” Edwards’ ex-mistress and John Edwards’ long time friend and former Director of Operations, Andrew Young, relocate to another “community” because the two who were being “hounded” by “tabloid reporters”. Young had claimed in December that he, not Edwards, was the father of the baby.

Baron claimed that he and Edwards had never spoken about the affair despite the almost decade long relationship between he and Edwards, the vast amount of money poured into Edwards’ campaign coffers by Baron, and the fact that Baron was currently serving as Edwards’ national campaign finance Chairman at the time of the affair.

The National Enquirer reported in December that the pregnant Hunter had been relocated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to an upscale gated community known as Governor’s Club. Hunter was not only living less than five miles from Edwards’ campaign headquarters but also just a few blocks from Young and his wife and small children.

Baron claimed he had come to Young and Hunter’s rescue after the two were being hounded by “tabloid reporters”. It was later learned that Hunter, Young, and Young’s family moved to an expensive area in Santa Barbara, where they all lived together in the same home. Baron purportedly had “financed” the move. Hunter failed to put Young’s name on her daughter’s birth certificate.

Edwards was forced to admit to the affair after Enquirer reporters caught the ex-Senator sneaking out Hunter’s Beverly Hilton Hotel room on July 21 at 2:40 in the morning.

Baron later claimed he “helped” Young and Hunter move because Enquirer reporters had stalked Young’s children at their school and “photographed” them at a “playground”.

Young, who is on record contacting the local Sheriff’s office when Enquirer reporters showed up at his door in December, failed to contact the police when the tabloid reporters allegedly followed his children to their school and playground.

National Enquirer editor David Perel told DBKP that this incident “did not happen”, that the Enquirer was the “only one” on the story at that point. Perel said that “it makes no sense” regarding Baron’s accusation that Enquirer reporters followed Young’s children to their school and playground saying “why would we (Enquirer) want to photograph Young’s kids?”

Perel was also quoted in the Dallas Morning News. Perel said the “publication “never knew – or attempted to know – where Mr. Young’s children went to school, nor would we have photographed them. At best this is misguided paranoia, at worst a deliberate and sickening lie from the Edwards’ camp”.

The Enquirer published its first story in October alleging Edwards had enaged in an affair, allegations which Edwards immediately denied to AP reporters the day after the Enquirer story hit the stands:

SUMMERTON, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says a tabloid story that he had an extramarital affair is untrue. ”The story is false. It’s completely untrue, ridiculous,” Edwards told reporters Thursday after he was asked about the National Enquirer report.The supermarket newspaper reported that the former North Carolina senator had an affair with a woman who worked on his campaign. It did not identify the woman, nor did it name the source of the information for its report.Edwards said the story was simply “made up” and that he loves his wife, Elizabeth, who is being treated for an incurable form of cancer.”I’ve been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and as anybody who’s been around us knows, she’s an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known,” he said. “So the story’s just false.

A second Enquirer bombshell, published in December, claimed Edwards’ now pregnant mistress, Hunter, was living in a gated community in Chapel Hill. Both Young and Hunter issued statements via attorneys that Young was the father of the baby. Baron claimed he knew “nothing” about John Edwards’ affair, yet a New York Times investigation uncovered both attorneys had ties to Baron.

According to the New York Times, Baron initially claimed he had “no idea” how the lawyers for Hunter and Young “had been chosen” but later relented, saying he “might have played a role”:

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.

The Times investigation further eroded Baron’s claim that he had no knowledge of Edwards’ affair until “two to three weeks” prior to Edwards’ ABC Nightline confession on August 8 and that he was “shocked” when he found out. Baron now admitted he had a role in the the attorneys selected to represent Hunter and Young. Young released his statement in December on MyDD.com:

Statement On Behalf Of Andrew Young
December 19, 2007
As confirmed by Ms. Hunter, Andrew Young is the father of her unborn child.

Senator Edwards knew nothing about the relationship between these former co-workers, which began when they worked together in 2006.

As a private citizen who no longer works for the campaign, Mr. Young asks that the media respect his privacy while he works to make amends with his family.

Pamela J. Marple
Attorney for Mr. Young

Hunter’s statement was released in the Enquirer’s December issue:

“In a statement issued to The ENQUIRER through her attorney, Rielle said: “The fact that I am expecting a child is my personal and private business. This has no relationship to nor does it involve John Edwards in any way. Andrew Young is the father of my unborn child.”

Both Hunter and Young’s statements mention Edwards as not being involved in “any way” as the father of Hunter’s unborn child.

Baron claimed he had no knowledge of Edwards’ affair despite the fact that the AP reported Edwards had denied he was involved in an affair on October 11, the day after the Enquirer published its first story alleging Edwards was having an affair.

Both Young and Hunter issued statements coinciding with the second Enquirer story, published in December, which alleged Rielle Hunter was six months pregnant with Edwards’ “love child”. Both Young and Hunter referred to Edwards in their statements. The New York Times uncovered the fact that both attorneys representing Hunter and Young had ties to Baron. Baron later admitted he “might” have had a hand in selecting the attorneys. Even though Baron had a hand in selecting the two attorneys for Hunter and Young for the sole purpose of releasing statements that John Edwards wasn’t the father of Hunter’s baby, Baron denied he knew anything about the affair. Baron also claimed he “knew nothing” about the affair even though his candidate, Edwards, had gone public to the AP in October denying he had an affair.

Edwards has been in seclusion since his spectacular fall from politics which began on July 21 when Enquirer reporters caught him sneaking out of Hunter’s Beverly Hilton Hotel room in Los Angeles.

According to the Washington Times, D.C. based attorney Cleta Mitchell, who specializes in campaign-finance law, said Baron’s payments “should have been fully disclosed” and that “the idea that Edwards’ finance chairman can independently hand over substantial sums of money to two campaign workers at a time when Edwards is a candidate and to argue that that is not related to his campaign is a bit preposterous.”

Another perspective comes from the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. Jennifer Forsyth spoke with Brent Rosenthal, a “colleague” of Barons at Baron & Budd, Baron’s old law firm.

Rosenthal says Baron was an Edwards supporter from the early days of his first campaign for the presidency and that Baron seemed to grasp how important it was that Edwards not have any skeletons in his closet, given the recent Clinton sex scandal. “Fred said he had specifically assured himself that there was nothing of the kind—now this was long before Rielle. But he had paid attention to that issue, in other words, and was sensitive to the issue.”

The majority of the MSM has turned a blind eye to whether Baron’s “helpfulness” in relation to Edwards’ former mistress, Rielle Hunter, and political operative, Andrew Young, is illegal. ABC has been investigating the “money trail” between Baron, Hunter, Young, and Edwards.

On Tuesday ABC released a story on Baron getting “VIP” treatment at a private luncheon for Senators and donors during the DNC convention in Denver. Yesterday an ABC producer, Asa Eslocker, was arrested by Denver cops on a sidewalk outside the Brown Palace Hotel. Eslocker and a camera crew were attempting to take photos of Democratic Senators and VIP donors, one of them Baron. The entire incident was caught on film. Eslocker was forced into the street by a burly cop and then later seemed to be “choked” by another officer of the law. Eslocker was charged with trespassing, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. Eslocker and crew were videotaping VIP donors and Democrat Senators scheduled to meet at the Brown Palace Hotel. It was purportedly the hotel who lodged a complaint with the police.

While the MSM has evidently made the decision that the Edwards affair and the monies paid by Baron are a non-story, Baron has turned his attention to Barack Obama. According to the Dallas Morning News, Baron held a fundraiser for Obama in Colorado the day before Edwards gave his “confession” about the affair on ABC.

By LBG

Image - Fat Cat