John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Affair: Federal Grand Jury Weighs Possible Indictments

Jan. 7, 2011 — -- A prominent financial backer of John Edwards was among those appearing this week at a federal courthouse in Raleigh, N.C., where a grand jury has been hearing evidence in a probe of the disgraced former senator and presidential candidate's finances.

Michael Cucchiara, a North Carolina real estate developer who became a close friend and supporter of Edwards, was observed walking into the courthouse Thursday morning. He entered without making any comment.

A decision is expected early this year on whether to seek indictments in connection with more than $1 million that was used to help conceal Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter, multiple sources told ABC News.

Though grand jury proceedings are secret, Edwards and his attorneys have acknowledged the investigation and have expressed confidence that no campaign funds were used improperly and that no laws were broken.

Sources with knowledge of Cucchiara's relationship with Edwards say that he is one of the former senator's few remaining confidants. Their friendship got its start four years ago, after Cucchiara made a $2 million donation to a poverty center at the University of North Carolina that was then directed by Edwards.

The grand jury also heard this week from Lisa Blue Baron, the widow of Fred Baron, who was the national finance chairman for John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign.

Before his death in October 2008, Baron publicly acknowledged spending unspecified sums to move Hunter and former Edwards' staffer Andrew Young out of North Carolina to escape the scrutiny of reporters investigating the affair. As the presidential primaries approached, Young and Hunter -- then approximately seven months pregnant -- falsely claimed that Young was the father of her unborn child.

Baron said at the time that the money he spent was his own and that he never told John Edwards about the payments.

But in his memoir, "The Politician," published in 2010, Young claimed that while Edwards did not know the details, the former senator was aware that Baron was funding a high-stakes odyssey designed to keep them out of sight.

Hunter, Young and his family flew on private jets from Raleigh to Aspen to San Diego just days before the Iowa caucuses.

They eventually settled into a palatial estate in Montecito, Calif., for which Baron paid $20,000 per month in rent.

Hunter gave birth to a baby girl, Frances Quinn Hunter, in February 2008, in Santa Barbara, Calif.