Edwards aide avoids jail in sex tape scandal

A former aide to John Edwards will not receive jail time for his handling of the former presidential candidate's alleged sex tape, a judge announced today.

Edwards's former mistress Rielle Hunter had sued Young, asking him to return the tape. A judge had threatened Young with contempt of court for making contradictory statements about how many copies of the tape he had and whom he had shown it to.

Today, Judge Abarham Penn Jones released Young and his wife after delivering a "stern lecture."

Here's background on the case from the News & Observer:

Andrew Young previously said that he showed the sex tape to a producer for ABC and two book agents. After that, attorneys for Rielle Hunter, Edwards' mistress who Young says also appeared in the video, produced an affidavit from a ghost writer who previously worked for Edwards, Robert Draper of New York.

Draper swore in the document that on March 31, 2009 he and Young met at the Youngs' house. After Cheri Young had gone to bed, Andrew Young offered to show Draper the sex tape and played it on a big screen television in his office from his laptop, which suggested there was a digital copy stored on the laptop.

Young has turned over the original tape and a VHS copy. Federal agents have a DVD copy, but Young has sworn that other copies do not exist. He also did not disclose that he had shown it to Draper.