国外媒体:前美国总统候选人爆婚外情 总统之梦恐难如愿（在线收听）

据美国媒体报道，美国前民主党总统候选人约翰·爱德华兹5月3日表示，目前调查人员正在就他的竞选资金支出进行调查。而这一调查很可能会将他的婚外情事件曝光度升级，搬上法庭。

 Well, there is more bad news, if you can believe it, from former democratic presidential candidate John Edwards with his political career virtually not existing at this point, his marriage and personal life clearly in turmoil. The former North Carolina Senator made headlines yesterday when he admitted that he is now cooperating with federal investigators that are looking into how he's spent his campaign funds.

They are looking into why this woman Rielle hunter was paid more than 100,000 dollars from his political election committee. Hunter was a video producer; she worked through the campaign for Edwards and admitted later to having an affair with John Edwards. Now investigators are looking into whether or not money that was shuttled to her was actually harsh money for her to keep quite about the affair or whether there was legitimate compensation to back up the work that she did for the campaign.

So what is the case against Edwards and what will the political fallout be? If he is guilty, not to mention the fact that he could actually go to prison for these charges. Let’s bring in today's panel Chris Stirewalt, the political editor for the Washington Examiner. She's got the political side of this story for us and Janet, Janet Pennisi is a trial attorney chief.

Janet ,you made some excellent points a moment ago. You know, we are looking at how, how good a case is this appears to be? You have services, that were paid for and you have the question whether or not there are appropriate amounts for what she did, right?

That's correct, the question is whether or not the campaign funds that went to Rielle Hunter were appropriate payments for the context that what she was giving, was is good or accurate fair payment for the services she provided to the campaign. If she provided services that would worth 100,000 dollars then, you know, the case is over. You know, it does make a difference that he had affair with her. You can cheat on your wife.

Well, he is looking at civil and criminal penalty, that's why the will from the survey is important. It also depended upon how much money was used for personal purposes. If it goes into a higher number then it could go to three years. I mean it can go to civil penalties that margin how much money was in the pretax column.

Pretty incredible situation, when you look at this man talk about, Chris Stirewalt,talk about fall from grace. I mean John Edwards ran twice for presidential office as vice presidential candidate. We are now looking at a man who was a former senator from North Carolina who literally, things have just crumbled around him.

背景资料:

爱德华兹为北卡罗来纳州民主党参议员，曾两次参与总统竞选的角逐，去年8月承认自己与42岁的制片人赖莉·亨特有婚外情，今年3月他向患有癌症的妻子承认有私生女。据报道称，爱德华兹的竞选团队曾向亨特的公司支付了10万美元的视频制作费。

爱德华兹发表声明称:“我自认我的竞选资金没有用于其他不当用途。但我知道政府有责任确保竞选资金用途的合理合法，所以我已经向政府提供相关的人和信息以方便其迅速地解决问题。”

据悉，一些由爱德华兹筹措资金的组织也在受调查的范围之内，其中包括两个非营利组织，和他母校的一个贫困捐助中心。