Former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards is likely facing prosecution for allegedly circumventing campaign finance laws in an attempt to cover up an extramarital affair, ABC news reported.

A once prominent Democrat who espoused a populist message during two presidential runs, Edwards' career was derailed by revelations that he was conducting an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, who was also pregnant with his child. A nearly two year investigation has been examining whether Edwards used unreported campaign contributions to buy Hunter's silence on the matter, and sources told ABC that federal prosecutors are ready to charge Edwards.

Former aide Andrew Young appears to be a central figure in the government's case against Edward. Young charged in his book The Politician that wealthy benefactors gave Edwards hundreds of thousands of dollars, which he used to cover up the affair. Young claimed to be Hunter's child's father shortly before the 2008 Iowa caucuses, something he said Edwards told him explicitly to do.

The senator made the full pitch, Young said in a 2010 interview with ABC News' 20/20. Not just for me. I mean he didn't just have to convince me that I was going to take paternity. He also had to convince Rielle that she would publicly claim that I had been the father.

Edwards conducted the affair with Hunter as his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, was battling terminal cancer. She died late in 2010.

Cancer Cancer