Former Edwards Aide Strikes Back at Hunter

(March 16) -- Now that Rielle Hunter has broken her silence in a revealing GQ interview, John Edwards' former aide and tell-all author Andrew Young is striking back, denying Hunter's statement that he offered to claim paternity of her daughter and accusing Edwards of funding Hunter's legal battle against him over an alleged sex tape.

"I don't know how she's paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for lawyers to put me through my paces for three weeks," Young told CBS's "The Early Show" today, adding that he "can't think of anyone else who would do it other than [Edwards]."

Young, who recently released the book "The Politician" about his experiences working for Edwards, also rebuts Hunter's claim that he volunteered to cover up Edwards' paternity of Hunter's child in 2007.

"Yeah, I want to be the baby daddy," Young sarcastically told ABCNews.com. "No -- that's ridiculous."

In his book, he wrote that Edwards, bereft over his wife's cancer, approached him with the idea.

Hunter reacted to her own interview and the suggestive photos that went with it in a call to ABC's Barbara Walters, saying she was "repulsed" by the photo in which she wears only a man's shirt and panties.

In response to Hunter's claim to Walters that she thought some of the photos would be "head shots," her GQ interviewer, Lisa DePaulo, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "Rielle is a smart woman. She knows what she wore and what she was doing in the photo shoot."

Although Hunter lived with Young's family while concealing her pregnancy in 2007, their relationship has turned bitter, with Hunter suing Young for invasion of privacy for allegedly seizing a purported sex tape featuring her and Edwards. Young avoided jail time in that case last week by providing additional information to a North Carolina judge who said he was concerned about conflicting statements Young made under oath.

Hunter told GQ she was unable to comment on the sex tape, but she did say, "We're all here to grow and evolve. And I think Andrew will grow and evolve, even if it's behind bars."

Both Hunter and Young have spent several hours testifying before a grand jury in a separate case investigating whether Edwards' campaign funds were misused in the cover-up of the former senator's affair with Hunter. In that case, top donors paid out $700,000 for Hunter's expenses and funded rental homes for the Young family as they went into hiding with Hunter during her pregnancy.

Hunter told GQ that Edwards supporter Fred Baron helped with her expenses as a "gift" that was "free and clear" to her, adding that she had no idea that such large sums of money were changing hands. But Young fired back on that claim today on "The Early Show."

"It's patently ridiculous for Rielle to say she didn't know that money was coming in or this or that. We were living in a $20,000-a-month house right down the road from Oprah Winfrey," Young said. "I mean, come on."

In a not-so-subtle dig, Hunter told GQ she believed Young was lying to federal investigators about his use of the campaign money.

"If his grand jury testimony matches his book, I would suspect that they will be looking at him for many, many counts of perjury," she said.

As for Hunter's story that she and Edwards were swept away by a "force field" of love during their affair and her claim that he still loves her, Young said he believes Edwards is continuing to manipulate the women in his life.

"I think John Edwards is telling Rielle Hunter and Elizabeth [Edwards] whatever he needs to tell them to make them do whatever he wants them to do," he told CBS.

Young took a jab at his former boss on HLN's "The Joy Behar Show," calling him "kind of creepy" and saying: "John Edwards is not the most romantic type in the world. He takes his wife to Wendy's for their anniversary."

In a bizarre allegation, Young also told Behar that Hunter was involved with actor Jeff Goldblum during the Edwards affair, which has been reported by the tabloids.

"At the same time that she was dating John Edwards, she was also dating Jeff Goldblum and led Jeff Goldblum to believe it was his baby as well," Young said.