He’s smiling, but probably not too happy inside. Former Democratic vice presidential nominee and presidential candidate John Edwards‘ mugsot has been released after he pleaded not guilty last week to conspiracy and campaign law violations. A federal grand jury indicted Edwards on six counts, including conspiracy, making false statements, and violating campaign contribution laws. The case stems from alleged payments made in an attempt to cover up Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter.

Elizabeth Edwards, who passed away from cancer in early December of last year, has left a damning video testimony highlighting what she knew about her husband John Edwards‘ extramarital affair with his former campaign worker, Rielle Hunter … this, at least, according to an exclusive by The National Enquirer, the publication that first broke the story of Edwards’ affair and subsequent child with Hunter.

With the legal noose swiftly tightening around former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards, it is likely many are having a hard time keeping his woes with the court separate from his manifold moral shortcomings. On ABC’s World News Tonight, George Stephanopoulos and Mediaite founder and ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams discussed how the court will likely sort out the illegal from the immoral, and what money transfers are in dispute.

ABC News reports this morning that Justice Department officials have given the green light on criminal charges to be filed against former presidential candidate John Edwards. Citing sources, ABC reports the charges will involve alleged violations of campaign finance laws. The violations involve more than one million dollars in donations to Edwards from wealthy supporters–money allegedly used to cover up an affair with a campaign staffer.

The fast-moving investigation into former presidential candidate John Edwards and charges he orchestrated an elaborate coverup of his affair with campaign worker Rielle Hunter will soon reach a “day of reckoning,” ABC’s investigative correspondent Brian Ross on Good Morning America. A federal grand jury has been investigating Edwards, and a decision could come soon on whether Edwards will face criminal charges. “The moment of truth does seem to be fast approaching for Edwards,” said Ross on GMA Friday.

North Carolina television station WTVD-TV has obtained voicemail messages “purportedly left by John Edwards” that a former aide says prove Edwards orchestrated the cover up his affair with campaign worker Rielle Hunter. The recordings were turned over to a federal grand jury that’s investigating the former senator and presidential candidate.

Edwards has admitted to having an affair with Hunter and fathering a daughter with her.

News outlets are abuzz over a report that John Edwards has proposed to Rielle Hunter, his former mistress with whom he had a child, just a few weeks after the death of his wife, Elizabeth. The interesting thing is that the initial report came from the National Enquirer. The tabloid famously was the first to break the story of Edwards’ affair and child, so the media has seemingly collectively decided that Enquirer stories of Edwards and Hunter are the only ones they’ll “deign” to cover.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news on that John Edwards sextape that nobody wants to see. Yet the saga rages on, as the implausibly coveted tape returns to a North Carolina courtroom for a hearing. Rielle Hunter, the mistress featured in the allegedly racy video, is suing the former aide Andrew Young to “reclaim the video she made.” According to the AP, she “thinks the tape was taken from a box of her personal belongings.” To make matters queasier, the judge will reportedly “view a DVD this morning containing images related to [the case].”

The trials of John Edwards continue. Literally and figuratively. Today’s newscycle is such that Edwards debacles may seem like a bit of a distant memory, but the philandering former Presidential candidate is still in court tangling over access to the sex tape he allegedly made with Rielle Hunter, his former mistress and mother of his child.

Over the weekend the National Enquirer published an “exclusive” story claiming President Obama had had an affair in 2004. Drudge ran it as its lede, giving the story a level of attentionit probably shouldn’t have received. When reached for clarification, the National Enquirer is standing by their story.

Rielle Hunter made her much-promoted appearance, flatteringly lit, on Oprah Winfrey today to discuss her long and sorted (Pulitzer Prize eligible) relationship with the Edwards family. Nothing terribly jaw-dropping was revealed (mostly because it had already been revealed…again and again!) though there are a couple of the exchanges that will likely set the morning talks shows on fire for the next few days.

The Political Carnival notes that an unofficial Republican website in Chicago may have finally hit upon a rock-solid strategy to appeal to more voters, to become a truly big tent: nude photography. While the picture, by my favorite NSFW Russian photog Vyacheslav Potemkin, might not make you think about shrinking the size of government, or anything else, it’s certainly a good first step in making the front pages of GOP websites more inviting. After the RNC’s recent troubles, how much could it hurt? After the jump, a screenshot of the NSFW, naked-breast-featuring front page, and maybe some more sophomoric double entendre.

Every single person involved in the John Edwards story is awful.

But People magazine is still Team Elizabeth, and gets Elizabeth Edwards‘ PR team’s spin reaction to the GQ Rielle Hunter interview. And the Today show dug deeper.

Andrew Young certainly hopes so. The former John Edwards aide – who is admittedly leveraging all he can out of the former VP candidate’s sex scandal with Rielle Hunter – is now starting to hint at other women Edwards may have been involved with.

So apparently there was this photo spread in GQ that featured John Edwards’ baby mama Rielle Hunter, and it caused quite a stir across the great American news punditscape (yes, that word now officially exists.) What – you missed it? Well in the event that you need to catch up on what all talking heads think of this strange twist in an already bizarre story, the fine folks at Newsweek.com have done all the watching for you, and put together this highly entertaining video.

The pictures are, in fact, kind of sexy. There, I said it. Rielle Hunter, the woman behind the man who might give the National Enquirer its first Pulitzer, has finally come out of her shell. In a big way. Her interview with GQ is all over the place (in more ways than one), but it’s the accompanying photo spread that’s getting all the attention. The revealing shots have drawn near-universal condemnation (even from Hunter) for their odd mixture of stuffed animals and a seemingly fresh-from-sexytime Hunter. I’m here to tell Rielle not to be so hard on herself.

Now that Rielle Hunter is talking (and crying) it’s time for the other player in the John Edwards soap opera to come forward and make the media rounds as well.

Andrew Young was interviewed by HLN’s Joy Behar (in what was billed an exclusive) – but since he was around, he talked to Anderson Cooper too. Results were predictable.

Rielle Hunter has finally spilled the beans about her affair with John Edwards. And now the mother of former VP candidate’s love-child says she’s “unhappy” with the way she’s portrayed in the magazine: Not the article, mind you, but the picture spread which shows her scantily-clad, holding her baby. She just trusted the photographer so much, and now he’s gone and made her look all “repulsive.”

In case you missed it, here are some key concepts surrounding this bizarre story: Presidential Candidacy, Baby Dady, Mistress, Sex Tape, Cover up and Mastermind. The players? John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth Edwards and Andrew Young (former staffer to the Edwards presidential campaign.) Yesterday, Geraldo Rivera interviewed Young about the existence of the so called steamy sex tape, a video of which follows

Well, it looks like no matter how much you wish for it the Edwardses and their scandals are not going away. Behold the latest installment. Rielle Hunter has given a long interview to GQ in which she says, among other things, that it was Andrew Young’s idea to claim paternity and that (alas) the Dave Matthews anecdote is completely false. There’s more.

According to the Pulitzer Prize-nominated National Enquirer a Federal grand jury is about to indict John Edwards. Also, Elizabeth may be helping to send him to jail, though they don’t actually provide detail on this front…and really, who could blame her if this happens to be true.

Politics is a dirty business, but but even among the thickest of thick-skinned folk there have been few scandals as stomach-churning as the John Edwards sex scandal. Yet out of all this irresponsible suffering, Newsweek has found an unlikely hero: Rielle Hunter.

Just like last week, former John Edwards aide Andrew Young was back on cable news to talk about the latest revelations in the Edwards soap opera, including reports the former Senator may now be engaged to Rielle Hunter.

But that’s not all! Young was on Fox & Friends this morning to discuss everything Edwards-related.

Next On “As The Edwards Turns” – A Marriage Proposal To Reille? Could be – or so says the breathless reports from the National Enquirer. Oh sure, there was a time in the not-so-distant past where we’d dismiss such a scandalous report from the tabloid progenitor itself. But no more – we now are openly cheering for their investigative journalism to be lauded with a Pulitzer Prize.

Evidently its the season to heap vast amounts of shameful detail on sleazy politicians who were long ago buried alive in vast amounts of shameful detail. Not a week after Andrew Young, the malleable former aide to John Edwards, released The Politician, the New York Daily News has reported that Staying True , a memoir by Jenny Sanford, the soon-to-be ex-wife of the disgraced satyr-governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, will come out this Friday. . .