Disgraced US Senator Edwards struck deal with aide to pose as his love child's father

Washington, July 1(ANI): Andrew Young, a close aide of controversial former US senator John Edwards, is set to write a tell-all book and reveal how President Barack Obama's rival for the democratic candidature last year asked him to pretend to be the father of his love child.

In a book proposal floated to St. Martin's Press, Young will claim that his erstwhile boss assured him he would be "taken care of for life" if he pretended to be the father of a child his mistress Rielle Hunter bore, The Independent reports.

Young agreed, despite the fact that he had a wife and children of his own.

Asking Young to pose as the father, Edwards purportedly told him: "You know how much I love you. You know I'd walk off a cliff for you, and I know you'd walk off a cliff for me." The candidate, who was once the Democratic Party's golden boy and was John Kerry's running mate in 2004, went on: "I will never forget this. And I will always be there for you."

Young also claims that Edwards made a sex videotape with his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, which he subsequently discovered.

The one-time rival of Obama in the 2008 primaries has so far not submitted to a DNA test to determine the truth of this.

However, he is still at the heart of a federal investigation into whether campaign money was used in connection with the affair or to help with the efforts to cover it up.

Young says that the FBI has already interviewed him in this regard.

The prospect of the book coming out - make the chances of a political rehabilitation for Edwards seem more remote than ever.

"In a culture in which it is almost impossible to sin yourself into permanent banishment... Edwards may have pulled the feat off. It is impossible to feel sympathy for the man," noted Jay Bookman, a commentator for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (ANI)