国外媒体:前美国总统候选人爆婚外情 总统之梦恐难如愿

据美国媒体报道，美国前民主党总统候选人约翰·爱德华兹5月3日表示，目前调查人员正在就他的竞选资金支出进行调查。而这一调查很可能会将他的婚外情事件曝光度升级，搬上法庭。

 Well, there is more bad news, if you can believe it, from former democratic presidential candidate John Edwards with his political career virtually not existing at this point, his marriage and personal life clearly in turmoil¹. The former North Carolina Senator made headlines yesterday when he admitted that he is now cooperating with federal investigators² that are looking into how he's spent his campaign funds.

They are looking into why this woman Rielle hunter was paid more than 100,000 dollars from his political election committee. Hunter was a video producer; she worked through the campaign for Edwards and admitted later to having an affair with John Edwards. Now investigators are looking into whether or not money that was shuttled to her was actually harsh money for her to keep quite about the affair or whether there was legitimate³ compensation to back up the work that she did for the campaign.

So what is the case against Edwards and what will the political fallout be? If he is guilty, not to mention the fact that he could actually go to prison for these charges. Let’s bring in today's panel Chris Stirewalt, the political editor for the Washington Examiner. She's got the political side of this story for us and Janet, Janet Pennisi is a trial attorney chief.

Janet ,you made some excellent points a moment ago. You know, we are looking at how, how good a case is this appears to be? You have services, that were paid for and you have the question whether or not there are appropriate amounts for what she did, right?

That's correct, the question is whether or not the campaign funds that went to Rielle Hunter were appropriate payments for the context that what she was giving, was is good or accurate fair payment for the services she provided to the campaign. If she provided services that would worth 100,000 dollars then, you know, the case is over. You know, it does make a difference that he had affair with her. You can cheat on your wife.

Well, he is looking at civil and criminal penalty, that's why the will from the survey is important. It also depended upon how much money was used for personal purposes. If it goes into a higher number then it could go to three years. I mean it can go to civil penalties that margin⁵ how much money was in the pretax column.

Pretty incredible situation, when you look at this man talk about, Chris Stirewalt,talk about fall from grace. I mean John Edwards ran twice for presidential office as vice⁴ presidential candidate. We are now looking at a man who was a former senator from North Carolina who literally⁶, things have just crumbled⁷ around him.

背景资料:

爱德华兹为北卡罗来纳州民主党参议员，曾两次参与总统竞选的角逐，去年8月承认自己与42岁的制片人赖莉·亨特有婚外情，今年3月他向患有癌症的妻子承认有私生女。据报道称，爱德华兹的竞选团队曾向亨特的公司支付了10万美元的视频制作费。

爱德华兹发表声明称:“我自认我的竞选资金没有用于其他不当用途。但我知道政府有责任确保竞选资金用途的合理合法，所以我已经向政府提供相关的人和信息以方便其迅速地解决问题。”

据悉，一些由爱德华兹筹措资金的组织也在受调查的范围之内，其中包括两个非营利组织，和他母校的一个贫困捐助中心。

1 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

2 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 crumbled   

（把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏

参考例句：

• He crumbled the bread in his fingers. 他用手指把面包捻碎。
• Our hopes crumbled when the business went bankrupt. 商行破产了，我们的希望也破灭了。