Reply #27: The point is that it was for the benefit of allowing the campaign to continue

[karynnj]

Mellon had absolutely no connection to Hunter. She gave the money to help Edwards. In fact, the story is that she gave the money so Edwards would not use campaign money on things like hair cuts that could embarrass the campaign. (This story never made sense to me as Edwards was a multimillionaire himself.) It was given to be a campaign slush fund.

In addition, it was said some of the checks had notations like "antiques" - so it was not as above board as writing a check with Rielle's name on it. Note that she could not give Edwards himself a check for a huge amount. Do you remember in 2004, how the other Democrats made an issue of Teresa Heinz Kerry giving more than the maximum to the campaign? The fact was it would have violated campaign law had Teresa given her husband a check for say $10 million - enabling him to then loan that to his campaign.