A former aide to John Edwards testified Thursday that he overheard his boss asking his pregnant mistress in 2007 whether she was "showing yet," despite being told point-blank by the presidential candidate that Rielle Hunter was "crazy" and there was no affair.
John Davis is the latest ex-aide to take the stand in Edwards' federal trial and describe the deception he employed with his staff and his family to mask the affair. Davis testified that he had concerns about Hunter when she was first hired as a videographer during the 2008 presidential campaign.
"She's a very nice person, but different sort of person," he said. "The sorts of things she talked about, the sorts of things she did. She described herself as 'spiritual.'"
The testimony of another former aide -- about an argument between Edwards and his late wife Elizabeth -- had prompted Edwards' eldest daughter Cate to leave the courtroom in tears a day earlier.
She left again briefly during Thursday's testimony and when she returned, her father turned around and she pointed to her eye. However, she did not appear upset as she did on Wednesday.
On the stand, Davis described running into Hunter in a hotel elevator after she had been fired from the campaign -- something Elizabeth Edwards had demanded after learning about her husband's affair with the campaign videographer.
David said Hunter told him, "She and Senator Edwards were very much in love. ... I told her that I did not care about this, that I was focused on the campaign."
Davis said he felt uncomfortable and wanted nothing to do with what was going on. But Davis said Edwards called him to his hotel room the next day, where the candidate told him Hunter was "crazy" and there was no affair.
Davis recalled a stay at another hotel in September 2007, during which he overheard Edwards speaking on the phone with Hunter.
"I heard him ask Rielle, 'Are you showing yet?'"
The prosecution asked how he knew it was Hunter.
Davis replied, "Her voice was distinctive and stood out to me."
Edwards' lawyers on Thursday morning also wrapped up cross-examination of former staffer Matthew Nelson. Lead defense lawyer Abbe Lowell asked Nelson about another former staffer Andrew Young, who is the prosecution's key witness.
Lowell asked, "Do you have your own opinions about Mr. Young's character?"
Nelson replied, "I never found him to be the most honest and truthful person in the world."
Prosecutors are trying to prove that Edwards accepted an illegal campaign donation by allowing money from wealthy donors to go toward covering up the affair.
The case, though, has focused in large part on the intimate and salacious details of the behind-the-scenes drama as the secret started to leak out -- in the press, and among Edwards' family and staff.
Ex-aide Christina Reynolds testified Wednesday that she observed a very upset Elizabeth Edwards confront her husband at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on the morning that The National Enquirer published a story about the affair in 2007. She stormed off and then collapsed in the parking lot, Reynolds said, and the aide and another staff member helped her into the bathroom of a private hangar.
After collecting herself, Elizabeth Edwards came back into the hangar, found her husband and began yelling. She then pulled off her shirt and bra, leaving herself bare-chested, Reynolds said.
"You don't see me anymore," Reynolds quoted the wife as saying.
Reynolds said Edwards didn't show emotion, but that he called his wife's doctor and asked for help.
Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six counts related to campaign-finance violations. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted on all counts.
Fox News' Jonathan Serrie contributed to this report.
