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When John Edwards learned that Rielle Hunter was pregnant with his child, he reacted
with disbelief – and a verbal swipe at his mistress, a witness testified Tuesday. “She’s a
‘crazy slut,’ ” former aide Andrew Young says Edwards told him. Testifying Tuesday in the
second day of Edwards’s criminal trial in Greensboro, N.C., Young recalled delivering the
news to Edwards in the summer of 2007 after Hunter called Young at home. Describing
his phone conversation with Edwards, Young testified, “He was very concerned. He was
angry.” During that call, Young testified that Edwards said, “There’s a one-in-three chance
[the child] was his.” Young, who at one point claimed to be the father of Hunter’s child, is
the government’s star witness in the case against Edwards. The former Democratic U.S.
senator is charged with illegally using campaign contributions to cover up his affair with
Hunter while he was running for president. Hunter, who shares parenting responsibilities
with Edwards for their daughter Frances Quinn, is also expected to testify. Young testified
that Elizabeth Edwards had discovered her husband had an affair with the campaign video-
grapher in 2006. But she was unaware that Hunter and Edwards were still in contact in the
summer of 2007, Young testified, because he set up the phone calls between them through
what they called the “bat phone,” a separate cell phone. Elizabeth died in 2010 at age 61 after
a long battle with breast cancer. Edwards, 58, has pleaded innocent. His attorney said in open-
ing statements that Edwards has “committed many sins” but did not break federal laws.
