Lawyer: Payments Meant as Gifts

Rachel "Bunny" Mellon's lawyer, Alex Forger, testified on Monday that the heiress considered the payments to John Edwards to be gifts, not campaign contributions. Despite the fact that the payments were falsely labeled as furniture payments, Forger testified that Mellon liked Edwards "as a person, not because he was running for president," and that she made the payments because she wanted to help him with his "personal problem." Forger also testified that the middleman who handled the checks had told him that Edwards "did not or should not know" about the money.