 Andrew Young, former aide to former U.S. Sen. and presidential candidate John Edwards, leaves federal court with attorney David Geneson, right, in Greensboro, N.C., Monday, April 23, 2012. Prosecutors... (Associated Press) 
 
 John Edwards' first reaction when he learned his mistress may be pregnant was to downplay the chances he was the father, calling the woman a "crazy slut," his former close campaign aide testified Tuesday. After Elizabeth Edwards found out about the affair, Hunter was let go from the campaign. Young said Rielle Hunter told Edwards she was pregnant in June 2007, weeks later than the aide originally claimed in a tell-all book published in 2010. At a number of other points, Young said Edwards had detailed knowledge of what was happening, and indeed was directing him. Needing to support Hunter (and fend off threats to expose the affair), they decided to ask Mellon for money, after rejecting the option of seeking money from other sources. At issue is nearly $1 million in contributions from heiress Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and Texas trial lawyer Fred Baron that went to conceal his affair with Hunter, a campaign videographer. Though they did not tell her why they needed the money, Young said, Mellon wrote about $750,000 worth of checks. Young said he expressed concern to Edwards, a former trial lawyer, that they might be violating federal campaign finance laws. Some of Young’s stumbling statements were inadvertently helpful to his old boss: He testified that Edwards told him the money being funneled from Mellon to her decorator, to Young’s wife and then to Hunter was perfectly legal because it was a private gift, not campaign cash. Young did not, however, come off as a likely mastermind. “We believed in the causes. The candidate often used the phones of campaign staffers to call his trusted aide and mistress to avoid his wife seeing the other woman's number on his bill. He told prosecutors that in 2006, after Edwards had come home from a long trip, Hunter had called Edwards’ cellphone, only to get his wife, Elizabeth. But the defense maintains that it was Young’s idea to claim paternity, and that Young was freelancing when he solicited money from Edwards supporter Bunny Mellon. The next day, Edwards called him and launched into what Young described as a “campaign stump speech.” 
 
 “He talked about how this was bigger than all of us, how the election started in a couple of weeks,” Young said. He also revealed details about living with Hunter, the money that was used to cover up her relationship with the former U.S. senator from North Carolina and a special “bat phone” that Edwards used for talking to her. When asked why he agreed to claim paternity and care for Hunter, Young said power was the lure. And when Young said his motivation for agreeing to do such a thing was completely opportunistic – “I wanted my friend to become president because a lot of benefits go along with that’’ — he was at his most convincing. “And being friends with the most powerful person on Earth, there’s a lot of benefits that go along with that, for you and your family.” 
 
 Young’s testimony will continue today. Edwards has denied knowing about the money provided by Mellon. Melinda Henneberger is Post political writer and anchors ‘She the People.’ Follow her on Twitter at @MelindaDC.
– Andrew Young, who also once pretended to be the father of Rielle Hunter's baby to cover for former boss John Edwards, took the stand at Edwards' campaign finance trial yesterday—and he was a mess. He got flustered, gave conflicting (and at least once, wrong) answers, and constantly asked for questions to be repeated—and this was while being questioned by his own side, the prosecution. After a performance like that, the Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger predicts that "he stands a very good chance of being ripped apart by the defense" during cross-examination today. Highlights from his testimony, via the Post, the AP, and the News-Record: The night Edwards announced his 2008 campaign, he, Young, and Hunter passed around a bottle of wine in the car as Young drove to the kick-off event, Young said. When Edwards first learned of Hunter's pregnancy, "he said she was a crazy slut and there was a 1-in-3 chance that it was his," Young said. When heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon started funneling money to Hunter—the central issue of the trial—"we were scared," Young said. "It was a truckload of money, more money than had ever flowed through our accounts. ... It was crazy." In order to phone Hunter without his wife finding out, Edwards often used staffers' phones … as well as a secret cell phone he, Young, and Hunter referred to as "the bat phone," Young said. When Edwards came up with the idea of using Young as a cover, he gave Young what the aide referred to as a "campaign stump speech" explaining that the issue "was bigger than all of us," and that voters "don’t give a s--- about you. They want me." Why did Young agree to it? "I wanted my friend to be president," he admitted. "Being friends with the most powerful person on Earth, there are benefits to that."