For John Edwards, Indictment in the Balance as Grand Jury Wraps Up Its Investigation

Just when you thought there was nothing more to say about John Edwards and his fall from grace, there's word that the grand jury weighing evidence against him for more than a year is expected to soon conclude its work. Then we'll know whether the two-time presidential candidate will be indicted on that evidence, or if federal prosecutors will close down the investigation into his finances that has dogged him since late 2008.

The scandal that damaged Edwards' reputation and destroyed his marriage -- his affair with Rielle Hunter and the child he fathered with her even as his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer -- morphed into a web of financial relationships that Edwards built and allegedly traded on while presenting himself as a devoted family man in his quest for the presidency.

Edwards' alleged efforts to cover up his actions while preserving and advancing his presidential ambitions are the prism through which federal investigators examined the more than $1 million Edwards is said to have spent keeping Hunter out of the public eye and gaining the complicity of top aide Andrew Young and longtime Democratic operative Nick Baldick, all of whom were called to testify before the grand jury. The court of public opinion has rendered its judgment, offering no sympathy for Edwards, and now he may face charges having to do with evading campaign finance and tax laws.

The large sums involved in the alleged cover-up are what initially attracted investigators, but the probe soon broadened into the nonprofit organization that Edwards set up as a vehicle to continue his interest in poverty issues, and his theme of "Two Americas." The Center for Promise and Opportunity received more than $2.2 million in 2006, much of it from undisclosed donors. Hunter received over $120,000 from the center and another $114,086 from Edwards' political action committee for filming a series of "webisodes" -- video clips of behind-the-scenes moments that also captured her in flirtatious moments with the candidate.

A lawyer representing the Center for Promise and Opportunity, which no longer exists, told Newsweek in an interview last year that everything was "completely appropriate" and "not based on any personal relationship," but the time line suggests otherwise. Hunter has said that her love affair with Edwards began in February 2006, and much of her work on the campaign occurred well after that, including a trip to Africa in October of that year meant to highlight Edwards' work with refugees. Campaign aides have said they felt pressured by Edwards to put Hunter on the payroll.

Edwards was a successful trial lawyer before he went into politics, and he made a lot of money. But no amount of money can purge the shame of how he handled his marriage, and lied about his affair and the child he has since acknowledged is his daughter. Elizabeth Edwards died in December and pointedly did not make any mention of her estranged husband in her will, directing her oldest surviving child, Cate, to oversee the welfare of her two younger children.

Whatever course investigators now conclude is appropriate won't change the verdict already delivered by the court of public opinion, or the obscurity forced upon this once very public man.