Daily Beast

    My sources confirm that Holding's investigators, having reconstructed how they believe former Edwards' Senate staffer Andrew Young bankrolled hiding the pregnant Hunter for his boss, took their findings to Washington. Given the national scope and political sensitivity, they determined that the top dogs at the U.S. Justice Department should decide whether to continue targeting the former presidential candidate. By all accounts, including sources close to the case that I spoke with, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's team realized there was enough there to keep the Edwards case active. The Justice Department not only approved the investigation should continue, full steam ahead, but also ordered the latest round of subpoenas.

    The sheer number of subpoenas is a telling clue. According to former Edwards staffers who wish to remain anonymous, there were far fewer than 20 people in the loop about how Edwards funded his Hide Hunter scheme. Furthermore, those in the inner circle of confidants including Chief of Staff Miles Lackey; Jonathan Price who, according the sources, handled all things Rielle; and Nick Baldick and Alexis Barr, who possessed the check-writing ability connected to Edwards' nonprofit groups are believed to have already testified before the grand jury. So these subpoenas seem to indicate that the feds are looking beyond questions surrounding how Hunter got money.

    The next clue comes via a source who is familiar with the inner workings of the case and who has been close to Edwards for years. This person tells me that these newly subpoenaed witnesses are primarily Washington, D.C.-based. That hints at the possibility that prosecutors might be looking past the presidential campaign itself and toward how Edwards' operated his former Senate office and perhaps even to the actions of Edwards' estranged and cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth.