August 13, 2008 11:37 AM

Baron Discusses Edwards Affair, Payments

Posted by Zach Lowe

The Am Law Daily gave you a primer on Fred Baron's career Monday, after the Dallas torts king admitted paying the mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards to help her--and the reputed father of her baby--relocate from North Carolina to avoid a tabloid media blitz.

Baron didn't comment for that story, but yesterday he gave a candid interview to Texas Lawyer, an Am Law Daily sibling publication.

Baron said Edwards did a "very, very stupid, bad thing" by having an affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006. Baron said he began slipping rent money to Hunter and Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign staffer who has claimed to be the father of Hunter's baby, to move them into multi-million-dollar homes in California. He reiterated he made the payments without telling Edwards and without knowing for certain Edwards had had an affair with Hunter.

Baron declined to say how much he paid Young and Hunter, but he disputed reports that the payments added up to as much as $15,000 per month.

Baron told Texas Lawyer  he learned of the affair only two or three weeks ago, when Edwards, after months of labeling National Enquirer reports "tabloid trash," finally came clean to a group of close friends.

"I was shocked," Baron told the paper.

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