Salon.com > John Ensign

A devastating report on the Ensign affair

Thu, 12 May 2011 20:43:00 +0000

If you read just one report from the Senate Ethics Committee this year … make it the 75-pager just released on John Ensign, his affair with a campaign staffer married to another Ensign aide, and the subsequent botched coverup.

Ensign resigned from the Senate last month. But the ethics committee is referring its findings to the Justice Department, alleging that Ensign may have committed crimes including obstruction of justice and violation of federal election law.

The referral to the DOJ is the headline here. But the new report, the product of a 22-month investigation, also includes some remarkable details about just what happened between Ensign and Cynthia Hampton, and the senator's attempt to keep the matter from blowing up -- partly by trying to placate Cynthia's husband, Ensign staffer Doug Hampton.

Doug Hampton was indicted in March for allegedly violating a ban on lobbying Ensign's office following his employment there.

Here's a sample of the findings from the new report.

Hampton was worried about losing her job after beginning the affair with Ensign, highlighting the skewed power dynamic in the relationship:

Ethics Committee refers Ensign case to Justice

Thu, 12 May 2011 19:59:00 +0000

Former Sen. John Ensign of Nevada made false statements to the Federal Election Commission and obstructed a Senate Ethics Committee's investigation into his conduct, the panel said Thursday in a scathing report that sent the matter to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.

Ensign, a Nevada Republican, resigned his seat May 3 rather than face continued scrutiny and possible public hearings about his affair with the wife of one of his top Senate aides, a payment to the aide's family, and the aide's lobbying after leaving Senate employment.

The committee also asked the FEC to investigate possible campaign finance law violations.

"When Sen. Ensign resigned he said and I quote, 'I have not violated any law, rule or standard of conduct,'" committee Chairman Barbara Boxer told the Senate. "I want to go on record ... to say how strongly I disagree with that statement."

The committee has been investigating Ensign for 22 months. The Senate cannot punish a member no longer serving, but the referrals ensure that investigation of Ensign will go on for some time.

Ensign has acknowledged an affair with Cynthia Hampton, a former campaign treasurer. She's the wife of Douglas Hampton, who was Ensign's co-chief of staff.

Berkley announces bid for Ensign seat in Senate

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:25:00 +0000

Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley will run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Nevada Republican John Ensign.

Berkeley's campaign released a statement Thursday in Washington putting the seven-term Democrat from Las Vegas in a race against northern Nevada GOP Congressman Dean Heller.

Berkeley and Heller each easily won re-election in November, and have been considered front-runners to replace Ensign since he announced in March that he won't seek a third term. A Democratic lawyer, Byron Georgiou, is also in the race.

Berkeley's 60 and a liberal Democrat. She's a former state assemblywoman elected in 1999 to a congressional seat formerly held by Ensign.

Berkeley has tried in recent months to extend unemployment benefits and provide relief for struggling homeowners in a state with the nation's highest jobless and foreclosure rates.

John Ensign invites Sharron Angle to lunch in D.C.

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle is attending the weekly policy lunch of Republican senators in D.C. today. She is the guest of Sen. John Ensign. Apparently Ensign, who was chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee until he revealed his extramarital affair, is hoping some of that Angle magic rubs off on him.

But he didn't warn the other Republicans that he was inviting her:

A senior GOP Senate source said Ensign didn't officially inform those who run the lunch, which Ensign used to do before he was forced to resign from his leadership post.

"This is Ensign going rogue in an attempt to rehabilitate his soiled reputation by latching onto someone popular with Nevada voters," said the source.

It seems dumb for Angle to go out to lunch with Ensign, who is still under investigation for covering up his affair with a former employee whose husband was also a former employee. And for the outsider who beat the party's preferred candidate to meet with the Establishment itself is also a bit questionable.

“C Street House” under ethics investigation

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0000

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating the C Street townhouse owned by the mafia-inspired Christianist group "The Family."

Members of Congress who live in the C Street House pay $950/month for private rooms in a $1.8 million townhouse, steps from the Capitol, with maid service and laundry included. How can the building's owner afford such a deal? Easy -- the C Street house is classified as a church.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint in April. The OCE's job is to vet complaints and refer cases to the appropriate ethics committee.

Congressmen who live in the house have been downplaying the unusual nature of the situation ever since the John Ensign and Mark Sanford scandals thrust the house into the limelight. The OCE investigation could be abandoned within 30 days or go on for three months before its taken up by the ethics committee.

Las Vegas Sun: Justice Department mulling Ensign indictment

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:06:00 +0000

The distasteful saga of Sen. John Ensign, Republican from Nevada, adulterer and financial finagler, has been stuck in a strange state of irresolution since he confessed to an illicit romance with an aide's wife last summer. Constrained by Senate rules and customs, his colleagues say nothing, while the ridiculous Senate Ethics Committee does nothing.

Although he was forced to step down from the chairmanship of the Republican Policy Committee, few in the party leadership have criticized him or called for him to resign, even as the emerging story of Ensign's alleged financial and professional payoffs to his former lover and her family have raised questions of criminal misconduct.

The Justice Department began to probe those payoffs not long after initial reports that Ensign's parents -- wealthy owners of a casino resort in Nevada -- had given at least $96,000 to the former aide, Doug Hampton, and his wife. What the Ensigns called a "gift" might be viewed as something else by federal authorities.

Meet the knuckleheads of the U.S. Senate

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Since the passing of Ted Kennedy, commentators have noted, almost ritually, how a seemingly feckless 30-year-old transformed himself over 47 years into the most accomplished senator of the modern era. Not to denigrate his many years of service to the nation, but maybe this isn't just a matter of Ted Kennedy's personal growth. Maybe, to paraphrase Norma Desmond, it's the Senate that got small. As pundits like Alex Massie and Tom Schaller have observed, when young Teddy arrived on Capitol Hill, he was breathing the same air as Scoop Jackson, Barry Goldwater, Everett Dirksen, Hubert Humphrey, William Fulbright, Ed Muskie and Birch Bayh. When he left a half-century later, his colleagues were Evan Bayh, and Mike Crapo and Mike Enzi and John Cornyn. (And Ted Kaufman, who's only there so the vice-president's son can run for his seat.)

Ensign says parents gave $96,000 to his mistress’ family

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:01:00 +0000

For some time now, it's seemed that Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was able to successfully weather the disclosure of his affair with a staffer and could continue his political career, albeit with his reputation tarnished and any hopes for higher office dashed for now. But this week, attention was back on the senator, and people are raising new questions about payments made to his mistress and her husband, a longtime friend. Now, a new revelation from Ensign's lawyer is likely to open the floodgates.

In a statement released Thursday, Ensign attorney Paul Coggins said that the senator's parents had given $96,000 to their son's former staffer, Cindy Hampton, and her family. The full statement:

In April 2008, Senator John Ensign’s parents each made gifts to Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton, and two of their children in the form of a check totaling $96,000. Each gift was limited to $12,000. The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts.

After the Senator told his parents about the affair, his parents decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time. The gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others.

None of the gifts came from campaign or official funds nor were they related to any campaign or official duties. Senator Ensign has complied with all applicable laws and Senate ethics rules.

South Carolina Dems want Sanford to resign

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Sens. John Ensign, David Vitter and Larry Craig may have escaped their own sex scandals relatively unscathed, but it appears the imbroglio South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford put himself in is not going to go away anytime soon. In fact, the situation is just getting worse.

On Wednesday, The State, a South Carolina newspaper that helped to break the story of the governor's affair, reported that twelve of the twenty-seven members of the state Senate's Republican Caucus have signed a petition urging Sanford to resign. One indication of the trouble Sanford is in: Majority Leader Harvey Peeler was the one who composed the letter and passed it around to his Republican colleagues. Additionally, two state senators that are close with Sanford did not sign the petition but said they also want him to resign.

Adding to the chorus, on Wednesday afternoon, Carol Fowler, the head of the state's Democratic party, called for Sanford to step down.

Remind me: Which political party is “decadent” and “sick”?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:25:00 +0000

Whenever the latest Republican politician is caught with his zipper undone, a predictable moment of introspection on the right inevitably ensues. Pundits, bloggers and perplexed citizens ruminate over the lessons they have learned, again and again, about human frailty, false piety and the temptations of flesh and power. They express concern for the damaged family and lament the fall of yet another promising young hypocrite. They resolve to restore the purity of their movement and always remember to remind us that this is all Bill Clinton's fault. What they never do is face up to an increasingly embarrassing fact about themselves and their leaders.

They're really just liberals in right-wing drag.

The proof is in the penance, or lack thereof, inflicted on the likes of Mark Sanford, John Ensign and David Vitter, to cite a few names from the top of a long, long list. For ideologues who value biblical morality and believe in the efficacy of punishment, modern conservatives are as tolerant of their famous sinners as the jaded libertines of the left. Even after confessing to the most flagrant and colorful fornication, the worst that a conservative must anticipate is a stern scolding, followed by warm assurances of God's forgiveness and a swift return to business as usual.

Ensign’s mistress’ salary doubled during affair

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:45:00 +0000

By itself, the revelation of Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign's affair would probably have been out of the news by now. Sex scandals are passé in the political world these days. But now there's money involved, too.

There were already rumors that blackmail was involved in Ensign's sudden disclosure, but a report from the Las Vegas Sun could pose more trouble for the senator. The paper reports that Ensign's mistress, Cynthia Hampton, saw her salary for working at his political action committee double during their affair, going from about $1,400 per month to almost $2,800 in 2008 until she left the PAC not long thereafter.

Potentially further complicating matters, Hampton's husband Doug, who worked in Ensign's Senate office, got a $19,679 payment just before he stopped working there. He'd been making about $160,000 a year, the Sun reports. (That payment could be completely normal, it's important to note -- a severance package, for instance, or compensation for accrued leave.)

And the Hamptons' son Brandon, was getting some money too. At 19, he was paid $5,400 for "research policy consulting" by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Ensign chaired at the time.

Ensign resigns leadership post

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Until this week, Nevada Sen. John Ensign was the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, making him the fourth-highest ranking Republican senator. Then came the revelation, on Tuesday, that he had an affair with a campaign staffer who was married to a man working in his Senate office. On Wednesday, Ensign resigned from his leadership role, though he remains in his seat.

For now, though, this will probably be the extent of the fallout from Ensign's disclosure. At this point, a standard-issue affair like this one isn't huge news, certainly not enough to make him consider resigning from the Senate altogether. It might put a damper on the career of a man once seen as a rising star, though, and it will hurt any chance of his winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, which he seemed to be considering a run at.

Nevada Sen. Ensign admits to affair

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:17:00 +0000

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., flew home Tuesday. He had to miss a vote on a bill that impacts Nevada to do it, but he had good reason for doing so: Ensign was back In Las Vegas so that he could hold a press conference at which he acknowledged having an extramarital affair, reportedly with a former campaign staffer.

"I deeply regret and am sorry for my actions," Ensign said in a statement given to reporters. His wife, Darlene, is standing by him -- in a statement of her own, she said, "With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger." She added, "I love my husband."

The affair went on from December 2007 until August 2008, and was with a woman who worked for the senator's re-election campaign and his political action committee, the Washington Post reports. The woman's husband worked in Ensign's Senate office.

What’s the big deal about pig odor?

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Conservative politicians looking for pork in the latest omnibus spending bill got one pretty literal example handed right to them: a $1.79 million appropriation for "swine odor and manure management research" in Iowa. Not ones to look a gift horse -- or any other kind of livestock -- in the mouth, they've been running with it.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Twittered about the money. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, called it "$1.7 million to take the stink out of manure." And Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., took to the floor of the Senate to say, "Now, I'm a veterinarian by profession. I understand that pigs smell and pig farms smell worse than almost anything else, but when did it become the responsibility of the federal government to control pig odor?

Other people, like the Christian Science Monitor's Jimmy Orr, have joked about it too. "The good news is if you have a problem with pig odor, the $1.7 million investment is sure to take care of the issue and then it’ll be money well spent," Orr wrote. "Imagine a world without pig odor. That’s change we can believe in."

Salon.com > John Ensign

A devastating report on the Ensign affair

Ethics Committee refers Ensign case to Justice

Berkley announces bid for Ensign seat in Senate

John Ensign invites Sharron Angle to lunch in D.C.

“C Street House” under ethics investigation

Las Vegas Sun: Justice Department mulling Ensign indictment

More questions about Ensign affair

Meet the knuckleheads of the U.S. Senate

Ensign says parents gave $96,000 to his mistress’ family

South Carolina Dems want Sanford to resign

Remind me: Which political party is “decadent” and “sick”?

Ensign’s mistress’ salary doubled during affair

Ensign resigns leadership post

Nevada Sen. Ensign admits to affair

What’s the big deal about pig odor?