Fallen Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards was charged yesterday with using $900,000 in campaign funds to cover up an affair with a film producer with whom he had a baby girl.

Mr Edwards, 57, faces a six-count indictment “for allegedly participating in a scheme to violate federal campaign finance laws,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The charges, prepared after two years of investigations, concern hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by two wealthy donors that Mr Edwards allegedly used to shelter his mistress, Rielle Hunter, with whom he fathered a child.

A youthful, silver-tongued trial lawyer who became senator for North Carolina, Mr Edwards sought the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008. In 2004, he became Democrat John Kerry’s running mate, but the two were defeated by George W. Bush, who was running for re-election.

Mr Edwards was wealthy, had a model family - a wife he claimed to love and four children, one of whom died in a car accident as a teen - and seemed destined to be a leading voice in the Democratic party.

During his 2008 run, Mr Edwards allegedly accepted “more than $900,000 in an effort to conceal from the public facts that he believed would harm his candidacy,” said US Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “As this indictment shows, we will not permit candidates for high office to abuse their special ability to access the coffers of their political supporters to circumvent our election laws,” Mr Breuer said in a statement.