Political Veteran Warned Edwards About Affair GREENSBORO, N.C. - As John Edwards's extramarital affair became increasingly obvious to his inner circle and his campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination began to heat up, desperate aides called in a political veteran to try to talk some sense into Mr. Edwards. That man was Peter Scher, 51, an adviser to the campaigns of Bill Clinton and John Kerry, a former ambassador and now an executive vice president of JP Morgan Chase. Mr. Scher took the stand on Friday in the federal corruption trial of Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, and testified about his efforts to save the campaign. He said that an Edwards aide, Josh Brumberger, had called him in 2006 with a request for help containing the behavior of Rielle Hunter, the woman with whom Mr. Edwards was having an affair with and whose presence was increasingly causing problems. Mr. Scher and Mr. Edwards met at the Regency Hotel in New York, the same hotel where Mr. Edwards originally met Ms. Hunter during a night of cocktails months earlier. Mr. Scher testified that he told Mr. Edwards he had been hearing rumors about the affair and that there were enough people talking about it that it was a problem, he told the court. "You're asking me if I'm sleeping with her?" he recalled Mr. Edwards saying. Then he denied it. Mr. Scher said he was not completely convinced. "I told him if it were true he should not run for present," he recalled for the court. I told John that these things are not secret in these times. If it's true, it would destroy his political career. Mr. Edwards then agreed that Ms. Hunter should stop traveling with him and she did, Mr. Scher said. But then she began complaining about it and trying to convince aides to get her back on the road, Mr. Scher said. Then Mr. Scher learned that the aide who had originally approached him to talk to Mr. Edwards had been fired abruptly. He was angry and called Mr. Edwards and had a heated conversation. Cleaning up his language for the court, Mr. Scher testified that he said, "John I just don't understand what's going on here." Mr. Edwards used an expletive and hung up. "It was not a long conversation," he said. Earlier in the day, a North Carolina decorator, Bryan Huffman, finished his testimony. Mr. Huffman was a confidante of Rachel Mellon, the heiress whose money was used to hide Mr. Edwards's affair. He funneled the checks to Andrew and Cheri Young, who took care of Ms. Hunter and would later turn against Mr. Edwards. Mr. Young has been the lead witness for the prosecution and testified with immunity. Mr. Huffman ended his time on the stand describing how disillusioned Ms. Mellon became when she learned the purpose for which her money was really being used. By August of 2008, with the affair and the child it produced completely out in the open and Mr. Edward's political career destroyed, Ms. Mellon turned off the financial faucet. There would be no more "Bunny money" as Mr. Edwards called it, using her nickname. And the $46 million Mr. Young and Mr. Edwards thought she would give to start a foundation that would be in her grandfather's name was never going to materialize. Mr. Huffman told the court that Ms. Mellon did not condemn anyone for having an affair. But, she told him, "maybe you should pay for your girlfriend yourself." Tall, regal and dressed in a shimmering gold tie and matching pocket handkerchief, Mr. Huffman, 48, appeared to charm the jury as he described how he came to be a special "evening friend" with Ms. Mellon, a banking and Listerine heiress, and how they spoke in the evenings and eventually came to spend a lot of time together.