U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho was arrested early Sunday morning in a suburb of Washington, D.C. for driving under the influence, according to a statement released by Alexandria, Va. police.

Crapo, a Republican, was stopped after a patrol officer saw his vehicle go through a red light. After failing field sobriety tests, he was arrested at 12:45 a.m. and “taken into custody without incident,” according to the statement by Alexandria police.

"There was no refusal (to take sobriety tests), no accident, no injuries," Alexandria Police spokesman Jody Donaldson told The Associated Press. "Just a traffic stop that resulted in a DUI." 

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In a statement Sunday night, Crapo said he was “deeply sorry.”

“I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me,” he said. “I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter. I will also undertake measures to ensure that this circumstance is never repeated."

Crapo (pronounced KRAY-poh) was released around 5 a.m. Sunday on an unsecured $1,000 bond. His court date is set for Jan. 4. 

Crapo has served in the Senate since 1998, where he has built a reputation as a staunch social and fiscal conservative. He is currently in his third term and won't have to run again until 2016.

A Mormon from Idaho Falls, Idaho, he has five children with his wife, Susan.

NBC's Frank Thorp and The Associated Press contributed reporting.

President Barack Obama will travel to Newtown, Conn., on Sunday to meet with families of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and to thank first responders, the White House announced on Saturday night.

The president will also speak at an interfaith vigil for families of the victims as well as other families from Sandy Hook Elementary. 

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In his weekly radio and Internet address earlier on Saturday, Obama said it was time to "take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this.''   

But he stopped short of specifically calling for tighter gun-control laws.

On Friday, an emotional Obama paused to wipe away a tear as he spoke from the White House about the tragedy hours after it unfolded.

"The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," he said. "They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."

He added: "Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, as well as the families of the adults who were lost."

A gunman authorities identified as Adam Lanza, 20, shot to death 20 children and six adults at the school. He earlier killed his mother at her home, officials have said.

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Updated at 6:50 p.m. ET: A donor to former Sen. John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign testified Tuesday that he steered Barack Obama's campaign away from considering Edwards as a potential running mate or Cabinet member because of Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter.

The donor, Tim Toben, a prominent developer in Chapel Hill, N.C., said he called the Obama campaign in June 2008 after Edwards told him that he might be Obama's running mate. Toben said he warned Obama advisers because he feared that Edwards' affair would have "destroyed" Democratic chances in the general election.

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Edwards is on trial in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, N.C., where he is charged with six felony counts of accepting about $1 million in illegal and unreported campaign donations from two wealthy supporters.

Toben was called as a prosecution witness because he was identified as the intermediary who spirited Hunter away in the middle of the night to a waiting jet after The National Enquirer reported her identity. He said he did it as a "big favor" to Edwards.

• Full trial coverage on msnbc.com
• Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

Toben testified Monday that he broke ranks with Edwards after the candidate forced him to choose to remain loyal to him or to Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide who falsely claimed paternity for Hunter's daughter and is now Edwards' chief accuser.

Toben said he chose Young, saying Edwards had betrayed the trust of "the people he spoke for." He said he thought Young was unwisely "taking a bullet for the team" and encouraged him to write the book because "this charade was ridiculous."

Tuesday afternoon, Wendy Button, a former speechwriter for Edwards, testified she helped Edwards draft a 2009 speech admitting the affair and acknowledging that he knew that money provided by the late Fred Baron was intended to deal with the Hunter problem.

That's one of the two key points prosecutors are trying to prove — that the money was handled as campaign contributions to his campaign and that Edwards knew what it was for.

In the 2009 draft speech — which he never delivered — Edwards intended to confirm that "I stood by while my friend (Baron) supported my daughter and will reimburse his wife for all he had done," Button said.

Mellon's lawyer testified Monday that Mellon considered her donations to be a gift to Edwards, not a campaign contribution. 

Hampton Dellinger, a legal analyst for NBC News and msnbc.com, said her testimony could help jurors connect the dots between the former senator's actions and the crime he is accused of committing.

"This is an admission that John Edwards said he knew all along that Fred Baron was paying to cover up his affair," Dellinger said. 

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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Prosecutors in the criminal campaign finance case against former Senator John Edwards described him on Monday as a manipulative politician who refused to let his affair or his mistress' pregnancy sideline his presidential ambitions.

But Edwards' defense asked jurors to "follow the money," saying the nearly $1 million in illegal campaign funds he is accused of secretly accepting as he sought the 2008 Democratic nomination instead went to a former campaign aide who used the money to pay for his $1.5 million house.

Trial blog: Five big questions as the John Edwards trial starts

Attorneys gave opening statements at the federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C., the state where Edwards grew up and was elected as a Senator in 1998. The two-time presidential hopeful was the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004.

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He was indicted in North Carolina last year on six counts, including charges of conspiracy, taking illegal campaign contributions and making false statements. Each count carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Attorneys on Monday picked a racially diverse jury of seven women and nine men to hear the case. Dozens of journalists from national and local media organizations crammed into the courtroom to watch the start of the trial. Edwards' parents and eldest daughter, Cate, also attended.

Prosecutors say Edwards, 58, was aware of the payments from the wealthy donors and that the money was meant to influence the federal election. Had it been publicly revealed that Edwards had an affair with a campaign worker who became pregnant, Edwards knew his presidential candidacy and his marriage would be doomed, prosecutor David Harbach said.

Harbach said the affair began in February 2006 when Edwards met Rielle Hunter in a New York City bar.

At the time, Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, was battling the cancer that ultimately killed her in 2010.

"This affair was a gamble with exceedingly high stakes," Harbach told jurors. "He made a choice to break the law."

Harbach said Edwards directed his loyal campaign aide, Andrew Young, to seek money from heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and campaign finance chairman Fred Baron to help pay for Hunter's living and medical expenses and to keep her out of the public eye.

Hunter briefly worked as a videographer for Edwards' campaign, but Elizabeth Edwards ordered her husband to fire Hunter, Harbach said.

Edwards later asked Young to claim paternity of the child, the prosecutor said.

"Anything to preserve his chances to be president," Harbach said.

Edwards' attorneys say the former candidate did not know about the money, never instructed Young to get it and never received any of it.

"John Edwards is a man who has committed many sins but no crimes," said defense attorney Allison Van Laningham. "John Edwards is not afraid of the truth. He welcomes it."

Van Laningham said the donors' payments were not meant as political contributions but rather as personal gifts to help a friend. Mellon and Baron were trying to prevent Edwards from being publicly humiliated, not to influence the federal election, she said.

Both of the donors paid gift taxes on the money, the attorney said.

Van Laningham said though some of the cash went to Hunter, most of it landed in the pockets of Young and his wife, Cheri. In addition to paying for their new home, the couple used the money to buy jewelry, electronics and vacations, the attorney said.

Andrew Young, who was granted immunity by the government, is expected to testify for the prosecution. He wrote a tell-all book about Edwards' failed presidential run and, in the past two weeks, he contacted three witnesses in the case to discuss their testimony, Van Laningham said.

"Since he can no longer make money being for John Edwards, he wants to make money being against him," Van Laningham said. "Follow the money and find the truth."

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