It keeps getting worse for John Edwards.

[billay]

[Aide: Edwards begged him to claim baby

Book will recount an alleged deal

BY JIM RUTENBERG AND MOTOKO RICH - The New York Times

 

The book proposal from a man who was one of former Sen. John Edwards' closest aides claims that Edwards promised him to "take care of you for life" in return for falsely claiming he was the father of the baby carried by Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter.

 

The aide, Andrew Young, sold his book proposal to St. Martin's Press for an undisclosed price late last week. In his proposal, Young quotes Edwards, a Democrat who was his party's vice-presidential nominee in 2004 and ran for president last year, as begging him to confess to fathering Hunter's baby.

 

"'You know how much I love you,' Edwards said. 'You know I'd walk off a cliff for you, and I know you'd walk off a cliff for me,'" Young wrote in the book proposal. "'I will never forget this. And I will always be there for you.'" The proposal was shared with The New York Times by a book publishing industry executive. Portions of it were reported over the weekend by The Daily News of New York.

 

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether any of Edwards' campaign money was used improperly with regard to his affair or efforts to keep it from becoming public. Young wrote that he had been questioned by the FBI and had been subpoenaed to speak before a grand jury in Raleigh.

 

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Raleigh would not comment. Edwards has issued statements saying he is confident his campaign acted properly.

 

When news of Edwards' affair and Hunter's pregnancy first surfaced in December 2007, a lawyer for Young said his client was the father. Edwards was preparing for the Iowa presidential caucuses at the time.

 

Edwards denied being the father after admitting the affair last summer, and Hunter has declined to take a DNA test. Messages left for Edwards with a former spokeswoman and at a family home in North Carolina were not returned Monday. A lawyer for Hunter, Robert J. Gordon, said he no longer represented her.

 

Young's proposal states that he was writing the book because he had become disillusioned with Edwards' behavior and recklessness, which he said included participating in the production of a sex tape with Hunter that Young later discovered.