Ex-US presidential hopeful on trial over mistress fund

Former US senator John Edwards has gone on trial on charges he used illegal campaign contributions to cover up an affair with a mistress who became pregnant during his failed bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Edwards is accused of accepting more than $900,000 in campaign funds from two donors, knowing the exposure of his extramarital affair “would destroy his presidential campaign,” prosecutors said in a trial brief.

The candidate at the time was a married father-of-three, whose late wife, Elizabeth, had breast cancer.