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few moments, but first joe johns takes a look at how edwards went from rising politician to a guy who could face decades behind bars. reporter: john edwards, the politician, remember him? we have much work to do because the truth is we still live in a country where there are two different americas. reporter: but as it turned out, mr. two americas here had two very different faces himself, and one of them wasn t very pretty. people close to him said it was the face of betrayal, betrayal of the people closest to him, his late wife elizabeth, his supporters, staffers, contributors. granded, edwards was a promising politician at first, successful democratic senator from the south. telegenic guy, rich trial lawyer, but a spokesman for the poor. smart but homegrown. talked such a good game he got picked up as john kerry s running mate in 2004. i have chosen a man who understands and defends the values of america. reporter: but it didn t work out, so next election cy ....
an affair and pay his mistress. edwards attorney says known was not a campaign donation but a gift from two edwards supporters. joe johns is following the latest developments and he joins us by phone from near raleigh, north carolina. joe, you ve been following the twists and turns how this unfolded. what do we know about the specific counts against edwards now? reporter: the indictment, as i looking through it, has a lot of the information we expected to be in there, essentially, illegal campaign contributions, a number of counts on that. there s a conspiracy count and the other thing is the thing we ve been looking for forever since we really heard about this case, a false statements count. that is essentially, that edwards was able to falsify wilfully conceal, cover up and otherwise keep information out of the public eye about contributions that he received from at least two individuals we ve talked about again and again. that would be a woman named bunny melon, a ....
edwards lawyers say it was gifts from old friends intended to keep the affair street from elizabeth edwards who died back in december. first, joe johns lays out how all of this mess began. reporter: john edwards, the politician. remember him? we have much work to do. because the truth is, we still live in a country where there are two different americas. reporter: as it turned out, mr. two americas had two very different faces himself. people close to him said it was the face of betrayal. betrayal of the people closest to him. his late wife, elizabeth, supporters, his staffers, his contributors. grant it, he was a promising politician at first. rich trial lawyer, but a spokesman for the poor. smart but homegrown. talked such a good game, he good picked up as john kerry s running mate in 2004. i have chosen a man who understands and defends the values of america. reporter: but it didn t work out, so next election cycle, edwards jumped into the race for the whi ....
Edwards child. edwards at first denied having the affair and then denied being the father. but last year he finally admitted it. the story reached a sleazy low point when a videotape surfaced that is reported to show edwards and hunter having sex. the tape wound up in the hands of former edwards staffer andrew young, who turned it over to a court after rielle hunter filed a lawsuit. it took eight months before edwards wife, elizabeth, learned the extent of the affair. before she died last year, she went public with her feelings in a book and numerous tv appearances. maybe it was that 30-year investment that i had in my marriage. maybe i could not separate the flawed man before me from the boy i fell in love with in 1975. it does not matter now. reporter: the death of elizabeth edwards might have been the end of the story, except for the fact that there has yet to be a full public accounting. edwards raised $49.3 million in his bid for the white house. where some of it came from a ....
and extreme couponing for a cause. find out how this man is sending care packages to military troops overseas without even coming close to breaking the bank. but, first, six days after a tornado ripped apart joplin, missouri, rescue crews are still trying to find everyone. we re expecting an update shortly from state officials. but as of right now, 156 people are unaccounted for and the death toll has reached 132. more than 1,000 people are hurt. the federal government has approved nearly $3 million in aid and president obama plans to meet with survivors in joplin tomorrow. all week we ve been hearing extraordinary stories of survival, of strangers helping strangers and our paul vercammen is in joplin. hard to believe people made it through this, paul. wait till you hear this next story in a second. a pharmacist over that rise. his pharmacy was absolutely leveled and we have some still pictures of that. what rants did during the storm to survive is amazing. he and ....