Federal investigators have been gathering evidence and interviewing key witnesses. Former Senator Edwards and his attorneys have denied wrongdoing.

The focus of the case remains on the money allegedly spent – upwards of $1 million – to seclude Rielle Hunter and former Edwards staffer Andrew Young, who had falsely claimed paternity of Hunter’s child, while Edwards continued his pursuit of the presidential nomination.

But the government has also been digging deeper into Edwards’ past, scrutinizing transactions of a web of loosely-connected political committees, corporations and non-profit organizations associated with his failed campaign, looking for potential violations of campaign finance and tax laws, according to several witnesses who have been interviewed in the probe as ABC News reports.

What do you think is going to happen? John Edwards to be indicted or not?

photos of John and Elizabeth Edwards before the fallout. The couple separated in early 2010. Elizabeth passed away on December 7, 2010 after losing her battle against breast cancer.

photos: Fame

The photo above is John and his late wife Elizabeth taken during happier times

National Enquirer reported “close sources” as saying Edwards popped the question just three weeks after burying his cheated wife of 33 years, Elizabeth.

According to a source close to the Edwards family, John Edwards says that the report is false and he is not engaged. Another source close to Rielle Hunter also denies reports of the engagement, according to NBC News.

John Edwards, 57, and his Elizabeth, 61, separated after 33 years of marriage in early 2010 after he acknowledged fathering a child with his mistress Hunter. Elizabeth died on December 7, 2010 after 6-year battle with breast cancer. The couple’s had four kids from the marriage: Wade, the eldest was killed in a 1995 car crash; Cate, 28; Jack, 10; Emma Claire, 12.

Does it matter if he’s engaged or not? He cheated on his wife when she was battling cancer..

photos: Fame

Then Rielle told the masses (via Barbara Walters) that she felt tricked by the photographer for the magazine and cried for hours about the pictures. She does look like a floozy. In once she sits pantless and in another she’s writhing on a bed. However, GQ has struck back saying she knew exactly what she was doing.

“Did she say she thought they would be headshots?” GQ reporter Lisa DePaulo asked incredulously on ABC’s Good Morning America Tuesday (via usmagazine.com)”Rielle is a smart woman,” DePaulo added. “She knows what she wore and what she was doing in the photo shoot.” GQ also released a video of the shoot to “GMA” today and at one point the videographer asks Hunter, “You want to take a look at this?”

Marilyn Monroe aside, presidential affairs always seem to unleash a particular brand of crazy. It’s never the simple cocktail waitresses and porn stars, like those we’ve grown accustomed in other branches of celebrity.

Photos: Mark Seliger/GQ

more Rielle after the hop…

She told Barbara Walters (via People.com):

“Hunter, 45, on Monday morning, and that Hunter had “cried for two hours” upon seeing the images and deemed them “repulsive.” Hunter trusted the photographer, Mark Seliger, to take classy photos, according to Walters. But several of them show Hunter lounging around in only a collared white dress shirt and no pants. “I went with the flow,” Walters quoted Hunter as saying.”

Oh, cry us a river. Sure, Hunter isn’t used to the spotlight and not savvy in the ways of gossip journalism but after bedding a married man, having his child and popping out a sex tape, this seems about the lowest on her list of offenses.

Photos: GQ.com

More Rielle news after the jump…

I wonder what John’s current estranged wife Elizabeth thinks now! From GQ:

I feel comfortable talking now, because Johnny went public and made a statement admitting paternity. I didn’t feel like I could ever speak until he did that. Because had I spoken, I would have emasculated him. And I could not emasculate him. Also, it is not my desire to teach my daughter that when Mommy’s upset with Daddy, you take matters into your own hands and fix Daddy’s mistakes. Which I view as one of the biggest problems in all female-and-male relationships.

Johnny? Do you really think they are going to get married? I can’t see John and Rielle together…

Photo: Mark Seliger/GQ

More pictures of John after the cheat…

John sure is a smooth operator…makes you have a lot of faith in the political system, even though he wasn’t elected. According to the Boston Herald:

“John has said that when his divorce is final, he’ll buy her a diamond ring,” a source told the Enquirer. “But in the meantime, he’s getting them a house.”

A spokesman for Edwards called the report “absolutely untrue” in an e-mailed statement to CNN.

The tabloid, which helped break the Edwards affair story, reported the ex-senator proposed shortly after he publicly admitted fathering the couple’s 2-year-old girl, Frances Quinn.

“John dropped the proposal bomb on Rielle shortly before he issued his statement” that he was indeed Frances’ father, a source close to Edwards told the supermarket tabloid.

The Enquirer has a good track record for John’s messy news…are they correct on this one too? John denied an affair for months after the Enquirer said he was having one, then he admitted it almost two years later. Is this true now too and we’ll find out in two years?

Photo: Bauer Griffin

More news of John after the snap…

I guess John’s affair couldn’t be any worse than any other politician’s – except now the media is way more involved. Here’s what John said via the LA Times:

“I am Quinn’s father,” Edwards said in a prepared statement, referring to Frances Quinn Hunter, the toddler he fathered with the videographer, Rielle Hunter. ” . . . It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me.”

Edwards, 56, has been married for more than three decades to Elizabeth Edwards, 60, an attorney who played a high-profile role in his political campaigns, and who has been diagnosed with cancer.

At least admitting it is a step in the right direction.

Photo: Bauer Griffin

More pictures after the break…

John Edwards admitted his affair with Rielle Hunter, but denied her baby was his.  The kinks in that story are as follows:

When Rielle was pregnant, she named one of Edwards’ aids as the father.

That father was not named on the birth certificate.

That father has not paid a dime of child support.

John Edwards has money being funneled to Rielle still. 

Smell like a cover up still?  I think a DNA test is in order!

Photos: PR Photos

more photos after the jump…

“In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.”

And he goes on …

“I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.

It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up – feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.

I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.”

photos: PR Photos

Serious error in judgment? Does he mean he can’t keep his pants on? I feel sorry for his wife, that’s all.

Do you think he’s the daddy of Hunter’s baby girl?