John Edwards Sex Tape Spurs Legal Wrangling Between Andrew Young, Rielle Hunter

(Feb. 1) -- John Edwards' one-time mistress wants her "very private" tape back, but a former Edwards aide is holding on to it and, at least for now, rejecting offers to sell it.

"We haven't done anything with the sex tape," former aide Andrew Young told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" today. "We were offered gigantic amounts of money, and we said no."

Edwards' former mistress Rielle Hunter filed a lawsuit against Young and his wife, seeking damages for invasion of privacy and demanding the return of the tape she said in legal documents "depicted matters of a very private and personal nature." Young's attorney blocked North Carolina deputies who showed up at his office to retrieve it.

Young said he retained the tape and voicemails from Edwards for writing his new tell-all book, "The Politician."

"I couldn't have told this story without including the sex tape," he said.

Hunter alleges Young stole the tape from her and swiped photos of her daughter, Frances Quinn, from her camera and laptop. Young denies those accusations, saying he obtained the sex tape from a box of trash and that Hunter uploaded photos to his family's laptop when she was living with them.

The legal sparring marks another chapter in the rapidly unraveling Edwards story.

Young initially protected Edwards by claiming he was the father of the girl Edwards had with Hunter, who joined the Edwards presidential campaign as a videographer in 2007. Edwards recently admitted paternity of Frances Quinn Hunter.

Young told ABC's Stephanopoulos that he began to fear for his family's safety after his falling out with Edwards.

"For several months, I used to get up at 3 a.m. and walk around the house with a baseball bat and a knife," he said.

He acknowledges his own wrongdoing in faking paternity and participating in Edwards' cover-up.

"Was it wrong for us to do it? Was it a huge mistake? Yes," he said on "GMA." " But we deeply loved John and Elizabeth Edwards. We deeply believed in his causes."

"In our defense," he added, "we were convinced by the principals that all the viable candidates had some type of skeleton in the closet."