Just hours after the Huffington Post first reported on the unknown whereabouts of a series of videos that John Edwards commissioned for his One America Committee, the footage reappeared. The four webisodes were posted to YouTube.com on Thursday afternoon by a user named "MissingVideos."
"Before he was running for President," MissingVideos wrote, "John Edwards made a series of awesome short documentaries that later vanished from the internet...until now."
Both the Edwards camp and the video producers -- Mimi Hockman and Rielle Hunter -- had refused to divulge any of the material to the Huffington Post, citing legal restrictions. Several campaign finance lawyers, however, challenged the validity of their positions.
The content of the videos hardly justifies the guardedness with which the Edwards campaign treats them. Each ranged between five and eight minutes in length. In one, Edwards admits to having "no idea what's cool" when it comes to buying shoes. In another, he says Jon Stewart is a tougher interview than Tim Russert. Mainly, however, the footage is of him riding in a private jet on his way to a "Wake-up Wal-Mart" rally and a speech at a teacher's union, among other destinations.
Questions do remain. Why is the Edwards campaign so reluctant to disclose such innocuous footage? Why are there virtually no traces of Rielle Hunter on the Internet (unusual for someone in the movie business)? Why are all members of the production company refusing to talk to the Huffington Post, even regarding topics as mundane as the process of making political films?
An email sent to Mimi Hockman and the YouTube poster, MissingVideos, were not answered as of publication.