Report cites wider Edwards sex case aid

NEW YORK, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Statements purportedly helping John Edwards in a sex scandal blooming as he ran for president apparently had campaign ties, The New York Times says.

During Edwards' run for the Democratic presidential nomination, two lawyers appeared with supposedly independent reports aimed at clearing Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, of fathering a child in an affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter, the Times said. Edwards, the 2004 Democratic nominee for vice president, has admitted the affair but denied Hunter's child is his.

The report says one attorney, Robert Gordon of New York the attorneys, said Hunter, identified as a client, was not carrying Edwards' child and the other, Pamela Marple of Washington, said the real father was a client of hers named Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide.

But, the report says the two lawyers actually shared an important link with Edwards, suggesting they were part of a wider effort to protect the candidate.

Further, the pair allegedly were connected through Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas lawyer and former Edwards campaign finance chairman, the Times said.