The commission voted 6-0 to order the repayment after conducting an audit of the campaign.

A telephone call by AP to Edwards' attorneys seeking comment was not immediately returned. Edwards' attorneys have said the Democrat's campaign doesn't owe anything.

Federal auditors said the campaign understated its cash on hand and overstated its expenses, including money spent to wind down the campaign. Auditors also found that the campaign failed to itemize more than $4 million in loan repayments.

Such audits are required by law for federal campaigns that accept public financing, several of the commissioners noted.

"It is not at all unusual for a campaign to have a discrepancy," said Ellen Weintraub, a commissioner. "It's just a math problem and that's how the math worked out."

Federal auditors said about $2 million of the amount to be repayed was due to federal matching funds the Edwards campaign received but did not deserve. Auditors said the repayment also should include $141,808 in uncashed checks the campaign issued to donors that were never cashed, according to the audit.

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The hearing is scheduled to take place Thursday in Raleigh.

Edwards filed a motion last week asking that his scheduled June 20 deposition be postponed. He's being called to testify in a lawsuit filed by his former mistress, Rielle Hunter. Hunter claims a former Edwards campaign aide took sensitive materials from her, including a reputed sex tape showing Edwards. She wants the items returned.

The former senator says his deposition should wait until the resolution of federal criminal charges against him. Earlier this month, Edwards was indicted on charges of violating campaign finance laws. He's pleaded not guilty.

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The image is reminiscent of Tom DeLay from the Republican former House majority leader's mug shot. (DeLay was ultimately convicted on conspiracy and money-laundering charges.)

We wonder whether the smiles here are meant to convey confidence or an image of innocence. If so, neither man succeeded.

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It's easy to forget now, but in the early stages of the '08 race, things were setting up remarkably well for Edwards. After making a favorable impression in the 2004 primaries and performing adequately (if not quite as well as many had expected) as John Kerry's running mate that fall, Edwards sought to reinvent himself as a truth-telling populist, angling to inherit the army that Howard Dean had briefly assembled in the '04 race. He began by apologizing for his own vote as a senator in 2002 for the Iraq invasion and took to railing against Democratic leaders in Washington for their supposed spinelessness in standing up to George W. Bush and congressional Republicans. It helped that he was now a former senator, free to travel the country spouting absolutist rhetoric in casual clothing.

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The basic allegations are well known: that Edwards accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions in order to pay for living expenses and medical bills for Hunter, Hunter and Edwards' child, and Edwards aide Andrew Young, who had falsely claimed paternity of the child and was on the run from the media. The money -- amounting to $900,000 -- allegedly came from the wealthy heiress Bunny Mellon, along with Edwards fundraiser Fred Baron.

But the indictment is the first time we've seen a coherent narrative from the government in the case, and it includes some fascinating details. It alleges, for example, that Mellon wrote a series of checks for as much as $200,000 to be funneled to pay Hunter's expenses. But in the memo section of the checks Mellon wrote "chairs" or "antique Charleston table" or "book case."

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The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. The indictment was returned in the Middle District of North Carolina Friday.

An Edwards spokeswoman said she wasn't aware of the filing and declined immediate comment.

The indictment is the culmination of a federal investigation that lasted more than two years and scoured through virtually every corner of Edwards' political career.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Criminal charges were likely to be filed Friday against John Edwards, the culmination of a two-year federal investigation into money used to cover up an extramarital affair during the 2008 presidential election.

Edwards' attorney Greg Craig was traveling to meet with prosecutors in North Carolina, an indication that the former presidential candidate will likely be charged, either in a grand jury indictment or in a negotiated charge to which he would plead guilty.

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Edwards' attorney Greg Craig was traveling to meet with prosecutors in North Carolina, an indication that the former presidential candidate will likely be charged, either in a grand jury indictment or in a negotiated charge to which he would plead guilty.

A person with knowledge of the investigation said Craig, a Washington lawyer who was President Barack Obama's first White House counsel, planned to be in his client's home state Friday, where prosecutors were prepared to file charges. The source insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the private negotiations.

Prosecutors have told Edwards they will charge him Friday but plea negotiations continue, so a grand jury indictment or deal on a negotiated charge are both still possible, the person said.

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A source close to the case said Edwards is aware that the government intends to seek an indictment and that the former senator from North Carolina is now considering his limited options. He could accept a plea bargain with prosecutors or face a potentially costly trial.

Two months ago, when some potentially incriminating voicemails emerged, Salon's Justin Elliott spoke to North Carolina journalist Steve Daniels, who explained some of the finer points of an indictment that was then hypothetical -- but now appears inevitable. Daniels told Salon:

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Everyone already knows everything about that election. It will be fun, I guess, to watch famous people pretend to be other famous people. For a while. But that particular pleasure usually wears off about three minutes into your average "SNL" political cold open. And we are all already intimately familiar with nearly everything our dramatis personae will do and say.

I, for one, would rather watch a film dramatizing the 1948 election. Or 1876! Almost any close election that happened prior to the age of 24-hour cable news and blogs would be infinitely more interesting to watch unfold on television than the one everyone in the nation just sat through.

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The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Thursday that Elizabeth Edwards left all her possessions to her three surviving children.

Her last will and testament names as the executor of her estate her eldest child, lawyer Cate Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards died Dec. 7, six days after she signed the will filed in Orange County Superior Court in North Carolina.

The Edwardses separated early last year after 32 years of marriage. John Edwards admitted he fathered a child during an affair with a former campaign worker.

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com

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Please don't call it a battle. And please don't say she's losing it. Elizabeth Edwards, 61-year-old author, attorney, estranged wife of John Edwards and one of the most formidably graceful public figures in American politics, is just saying goodbye.

On Monday, Edwards' family issued a statement that her doctors have determined that further treatment for her cancer would "be unproductive." A family friend told the Associated Press that Edwards is "gravely ill" and may only have "a couple of months left to live."

Edwards first went public with her breast cancer diagnosis after her husband's defeated bid for the vice presidency in 2004. After an initially successful course of chemo and treatment, she announced in 2007 that the cancer had returned -- and had spread to her lymph nodes and bones. Three years later, it's now reportedly metastisized to her liver. Without referring directly to her condition, she posted Monday on Facebook:

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The family issued a statement Monday that said doctors have told her that further treatment for her cancer would be unproductive, and the family friend further described Edwards' condition to The Associated Press.

The friend said Edwards was briefly hospitalized last week and received treatment, but doctors have now told her that she may only have up to a couple months of life left. The friend spoke on condition of anonymity because of the personal details divulged.

Edwards' estranged husband, former presidential candidate John Edwards, and their three children were at her side at the Chapel Hill home, the friend reported. Her sister, brother, nieces, nephews and other loved ones were also there. The friend said Elizabeth Edwards is not in pain and in good spirits despite the seriousness of her condition.

Edwards, a popular figure among Democratic activists as she campaigned with her husband in two presidential bids, posted on her Facebook page that she can't express the love and gratitude she feels to those who've supported and inspired her. "The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered," she wrote.

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"But there are no signs of a dramatic rebound for the party, and the chance of Republicans winning control of either chamber in the 2010 midterm elections is zero. Not 'close to zero.' Not 'slight' or 'small.' Zero."

The rest of the column is similarly embarrassing. But to be fair, no one could've predicted last spring that Barack Obama would lose the House in 2010, besides someone familiar with history

Of course, if you make political predictions for a living, you'll be wrong sometimes. Incredibly wrong. Hilariously wrong. In fact, this is not even the wrongest thing Stu Rotherberg has predicted in the last 10 years. Because in March of 2006, Rothenberg wrote a column forecasting the 2008 presidential race -- "The 2008 Race Is On - And the Field Is Smaller Than You Think" -- and one name is conspicuously missing.

A selection:

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Aaron Sorkin -- best known for creating "The West Wing" -- will make his feature directorial debut with a John Edwards biopic.

Sorkin's adapting and producing Andrew Young's "The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down." Project's not yet set up at a studio.

Young, a longtime Edwards aide, gained notoriety during the 2008 presidential primary when he admitted -- then later recanted -- an affair with Edwards' mistress Rielle Hunter and claimed Edwards' child from that relationship as his own.

I don't know how to feel about that. Somehow, since "The West Wing," everything Aaron Sorkin's been involved with has made me feel a little slimy for admitting any desire to see it. The new Facebook movie? Man, I have almost zero desire to see that film, except that the director is David Fincher and it was written by Aaron Sorkin. A movie about John Edwards? Again, I'd rather tune out, but now they've got Sorkin and probably soon they'll cast, I don't know, Colin Firth or Chiwetel Ejiofor (as... no idea), and then I'll have to see it.

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The separated wife of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday that the two-time presidential candidate isn't the same person she married more than 30 years ago. But she noted her battle with cancer when saying it's important to her that their children see him in a positive light.

"I have three living children for whom this is a father I want them to love and on whom they're going to have to rely perhaps if my disease takes a bad turn," Elizabeth Edwards said.

Elizabeth Edwards said their new parenting dynamics are "going pretty well." Two of their children are still preteens.

John Edwards has acknowledged fathering a child with his mistress as he campaigned for president. Elizabeth Edwards said the decision to end the marriage was difficult because she had leaned on him for so long.

"I was going to be on my own in a way that I maybe hadn't ever really been, and that was pretty terrifying, particularly facing a disease, young children and a fairly uncertain future," she said.

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Edwards says in the updated version of her book released Tuesday that she spent two years trying to "reinvent" her role as a wife so that they could stay together despite the affair. But she says the "tender thread" holding the family together unraveled at the very end of 2009 -- three years after John Edwards first told his wife in private that he'd had a one-night stand with a videographer.

"One day, I did not want to try anymore," she said.

The couple has since separated and he acknowledged fathering a child with mistress Rielle Hunter during his 2008 campaign for the White House. The 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee also acknowledged a federal investigation into his campaign funds, with former campaign aide Andrew Young saying a grand jury asked questions about money used to keep Hunter in hiding during the presidential race.

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Nothing about Rielle Hunter's decision to sit down with Winfrey on Thursday was a good idea.

Hunter repeatedly claimed that she was doing this to correct a flawed public record about herself. And I can see it, can stretch far enough into the heart-wants-what-the-heart-wants school of domestic complexity to consider that during this turgid scandal, in which Hunter carried on an affair with Edwards while his wife was battling cancer and he was running for president, Hunter might have gotten the fuzzy end of the press's lollipop, that the enforced silence might have left her misrepresented as the heat-seeking, home-wrecking strumpet of our pulp fictive fantasies.

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"It is not my experience that a third party wrecks a home," Rielle Hunter told Winfrey. "I believe the problems exist before a third party comes into the picture."

"So you don't think you wrecked his home?" Winfrey asked Hunter.

"I do not believe I wrecked his home," Hunter said.

Hunter's appearance on Winfrey's show is her first televised interview since the former North Carolina senator first admitted two years ago that he had an affair with her. In January, Edwards said he and Hunter have a 2-year-old daughter after initially denying it. He and his wife, Elizabeth Edwards are now separated.

Hunter told Winfrey she believes people see her negatively because of the affair.

"A lot of people bought into the myth of the marriage, the Edwards' marriage as being a storybook story and it was so perfect and so wonderful and I destroyed it," Hunter said. "It fits into the two-dimensional story line."

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And it gets worse. I feel bad for Rielle Hunter. I don't think she's a villain, a slut, an animal huntress who preyed on the slimy husband of a sick woman. I think she's dizzyingly naive and the ultimate product of the 90s New Age movement: someone who really thinks Being Is Free, that there's no cost higher than the cost of not being yourself. You put that woman anywhere near John Edwards, whose core belief seems to be that Being Is Whatever It Takes To Be President, and you're going to get not only fireworks but also first-degree burns.

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