[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] And you're in the SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, just released information in the trial of former presidential candidate, John Edwards, including voice messages he left for his mistress, messages he was trying to hide from the world. Also, Rupert Murdoch now admits there was a cover-up from the phone hacking scandal that he calls a black on his reputation. Stand by to hear how the media mogul's bombshell testimony went down. And the creator of "Girls Gone Wild" telling us how he bought a summer internship, he alleges, with the United States senator or at least he thought he did. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, and you're in the SITUATION ROOM. This just coming into the SITUATION ROOM. Key evidence against for presidential candidate, Democrat, John Edwards. It was released only moments ago, and it includes picture, phone records, new details on the messages that Edwards left his mistress. So, let's go right to our senior correspondent, Joe Johns. He's covering the John Edwards trial in North Carolina. Joe, what happened?
[Joe Johns, Cnn Senior Correspondent:] Wolf, well, the court, for the first time, today releasing transcripts of voice mail messages between Andrew Young and Senator Edwards. This is going all the way back to September 2007, December 2007. In fact, there's one voice mail message from December 14 of 2007, right after Edwards had been photographed with his mistress, Rielle Hunter. He calls Andrew Young, his longtime aide and tells him he's going to call back, but if his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, is standing there, he's going pretend that he doesn't know what's going on, and he'll ask on the phone, how did this happen? What's happening? All of this to try to conceal the affair, of course. This, as the cross-examination here in Greensboro continued today.
[Unidentified Male:] Good morning, Mr. Edwards.
[Johns:] Thursday, for the first time, the court began releasing some of the prosecution exhibits entered into evidence, pictures of one of the houses in North Carolina where John Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, stayed after she moved away from the New York area to escape hounding by the media, phone records, transcripts of phone calls, and there was more painful cross- examination with prosecution star witness, Andrew Young, on the stand. A former right-hand man to Edwards who helped to conceal the former senator's affair with Rielle Hunter and wrote a book to tell about it. Edwards' defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, continued to try to chip away at Young's credibility and his recollection of dates, times, places and conversations he had with Edwards. Young often sparring with Lowell saying he was not able to recall certain specific dates and times or even the sequence of events, not able to remember whether he wrote a check to buy a car for Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, or paid for it some other way. Lowell asked if he used Hunter as a way to get money for himself. Young said no. Most of the money in question was given by a wealthy Edwards benefactor, Bunny Mellon of Northern Virginia. Mellon's check released publicly Thursday by the court had been endorsed by Young's wife and deposited in the Young family account. Mellon ended up giving $725,000, though, the larger amount she had promised is in dispute. The Edwards' defense team needs a clear timeline to try to support its claim that Young was enriching himself while he was paying for living expenses, travel expenses for Hunter and the baby girl fathered by Edwards. The cross-examination was painful at times. At one point, Judge Catherine Eagles warned the defense she might have to exclude certain evidence because it was confusing the issues or wasting time. A North Carolina law professor observing the trial defended Lowell's line of questioning.
[Mike Rich, Elon University Law School:] I think he's dealing with a hostile, difficult witness to get answers out of, and so, it's taken a long time, but it doesn't seem like he's been going around in circles and really wasting the court or the jury's time.
[Johns:] The questioning this afternoon continued to drill down on the question of how much Andrew Young actually may have cashed in, may have actually benefitted from this cash that was coming in ostensibly to pay for the support and welfare of Rielle Hunter? More testimony from Andrew Young tomorrow Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Do we expect Senator Edwards to take the stand?
[Johns:] We've actually heard there's a lot of doubt as to whether he'll take the stand. Nothing official. Nonetheless, we do expect to hear from Rielle Hunter. There are attorneys around this courthouse, quite frankly, Wolf, who would said a defense attorney would be crazy to put John Edwards on the stand given all the things he could be cross-examined about.
[Blitzer:] Thanks very much, Joe. Joe Johns reporting for us from North Carolina. We're also learning more today about allegations that representatives of the United States government consorted with prostitutes and held wild parties while in other countries. The scandal that began in Colombia with the U.S. secret service appears to be exploding into something much, much bigger, but now, incidents being reported in El Salvador and Brazil. Brian Todd is putting all these pieces together for us. Brian, what are you finding out?
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] The incident in Brazil, Wolf, involves military and state department personnel, not secret service, but we are also getting information that secret service agents have been involved in incidents beyond Cartagena.
[Todd:] A Congressional source tells CNN reports of misbehavior by secret service agents beyond the Colombia incident have been brought to Congress. KIRO TV, a CNN affiliate, cites a U.S. government contractor who worked extensively with the secret service advance team saying he was with about a dozen secret service agents and some U.S. military personnel a few days before President Obama's visit to El Salvador last year. The source says they were at a strip club where members of the American team drank heavily, that most of them paid extra for access to a V.I.P. section where they were provided sexual favors in return for cash. This is from one unnamed source, and CNN cannot independently confirm the allegations. Contacted by CNN, the secret service also cited this as coming from an unnamed source and issued a statement saying "Any information brought to our attention that can be assessed as credible will be followed up on in an appropriate manner." I asked veteran Washington criminal defense attorney, Jeffrey Jacobovitz, if he was head of the secret service or any other security agency Are you nervous right now something's going to blow up?
[Jeffrey Jacobovitz, Criminal Defense Attorney:] Well, sure. If you're the head of the agency, you're very nervous, because this is the kind of publicity you do not want in your agency.
[Todd:] "The Washington Post" reported that an unnamed source says such behavior is part of the culture at the secret service, not a one- time occurrence. Barbara Riggs, the first woman deputy director in the agency's history, denies that.
[Barbara Riggs, Former Secret Service Dep. Director:] Throughout my career, I have been on advance teams. I've supervised advance teams. And I've worked, you know, on presidential detail on two different occasions, and I have never witnessed anything of this magnitude.
[Todd:] And the secret service is hardly alone. In December of last year, in the Brazilian capital, three U.S. marines and a state department employee were involved in an altercation overpayment with dancers and prostitutes from a club. One woman allegedly started a fight inside a marine's vehicle and was injured when she was kicked out of the vehicle and tried to get back in.
[Leon Panetta, Defense Secretary:] Those that were involved have been punished and held accountable.
[Todd:] The marines were reduced in rank. The U.S. embassy staffer removed from that post. I called and e-mailed Lawrence Berger, attorney for some secret service officers investigated in the Colombia case to ask for response to the latest developments regarding the secret service. I never heard back. Former secret service officers have told us the agency drills it into its recruits when they're training, not to place themselves in these situations, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] But if it was tolerated in other occasions, secret service agents going on advance trips or whatever and meeting and dealing with prostitutes, could they use that as an excuse now, these 12 secret service officers and agents as an excuse, if you will? You know, we just assumed it was OK because it's been tolerated so often in the past?
[Todd:] I asked that of Jeffrey Jacobovitz, the defense attorney said no, you basically cannot use that as a defense. He says even in the foreign corrupt practices act it says that that you can't just say in court. Look, everybody is bribing a foreign official, so we're doing it, too. The same thing applies here. You cannot use that as a defense that everybody's doing it, really, in any context. So, it doesn't fly.
[Blitzer:] I think the story is going to explode. Thanks very much. Already exploding. Now to the phone hacking scandal that has certainly tarnished Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The News Corporation chief publicly admitted today there was, in fact, a cover-up within his organization. CNN senior international correspondent, Dan Rivers, is covering Murdoch's testimony at a media ethics investigation in Britain.
[Dan Rivers, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Amid a frenzy of flash bombs, the news tycoon who now is the news is whisked into London by court where he implied some of his executives tried to cover up the scale of phone hacking.
[Rupert Murdoch, Ceo, News Corp:] There's no question in my mind that maybe even the editor, but certainly, beyond that, someone took charge of a cover-up which we looked into and I regret.
[Rivers:] It was this man, Collin Myler, who was editor of "The News of the World," when the tabloid was closed down. Rupert Murdoch claimed Myler failed to tell him about widespread hacking.
[Murdoch:] The new editor was appointed with specific instructions to find out what was going on. He did, I believe, put in two or three new steps of regulation, if you like, but never reported back that there was more hacking.
[Rivers:] Myler now works for a competitor, and his lawyer says they have no comment. But Murdoch also sought to spread the blame for the hacking cover-up to other people.
[Unidentified Male:] From where does this cover-up emanate, Mr. Murdoch?
[Murdoch:] I think from within "The News of the World" and to one or two very strong characters there who I think had been there many, many, many years and were friends of the journalists. The person I'm thinking of is a friend of the journalists, drinking pal, and is a clever lawyer.
[Rivers:] Taken to be a reference to this man, legal affairs manager, Tom Crone, who hit back with an angry statement saying, "His assertion that I took charge of a cover-up in relation to phone hacking is a shameful lie." As a former deputy editor of "The News of the World," Paul Connew knows Tom Crone well.
[Paul Connew, Former Deputy Editor, News Of The World:] He's a lawyer, a very experienced lawyer. He's, obviously, very upset. He, obviously, feels that he's being or attempts are being made to make him culpable, a fall guy. I don't know, you know, how involved he was in the cover-up. All I believe is that the buck has to go higher than Tom Crone.
[Rivers:] But Rupert Murdoch's troubles aren't yet over. A powerful committee of politicians will issue their report on the whole phone hacking affair on Tuesday Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Dan Rivers, thanks very much. Meanwhile, a new fight brewing here in Washington pitting the White House against the House Speaker John Boehner, and college students are caught in the middle. Plus, an Israeli general, not just an Israeli general, but top Israeli general, suggesting Iran does not necessarily want nuclear weapons. Is he right? I'll speak with a key member of the House Intelligence Committee. And brand new details emerging right now on what Osama Bin Laden did only moments before U.S. military personnel killed him.