John Ensign R-NV Sex Scandal Involved Payoffs

Watching the cover up unravel should be interesting....

Ensign's parents paid mistress $96k
By: Manu Raju
July 9, 2009 03:11 PM EST

Sen. John Ensign's parents shelled out big bucks to pay off their son's mistress, the latest twist in an unfolding scandal that has upended the political career of the one-time rising GOP star.

The scandal has also touched Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), another prominent conservative, who revealed that he had confronted Ensign about the affair and urged him to end it, but says he will refuse to divulge any conversations with Ensign — even under inquiry from ethics investigators.

On Thursday, Ensign's attorney said that the senator's parents gave Doug Hampton, Cynthia Hampton and their two children gifts worth $96,000 in the form of a check. The attorney, Paul Coggins, said that each gift was limited to $12,000 and "complied with tax rules governing gifts."

Jon Ralston, a Las Vegas Sun columnist who interviewed Hampton, asked: "Tom Coburn, a U.S. Senator, told John Ensign, 'Listen, you've got to deal with this. Make these folks whole. Let them get out of your life. And, let's move on. Isn't that exactly what happened?"

Hampton responded: "Absolutely."
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=60ECE87A-18FE-70B2-A8ACEEA392A45B8D

GOP Senate leader stays mum on Ensign's troubles
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Writer 40 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell passed on several opportunities to defend two embattled GOP senators Friday as a new report raised questions about Sen. John Ensign's efforts to cover up his affair with a campaign aide.

McConnell refused to answer several questions about the report, which provided new details of the aftermath of the nine-month affair that Ensign had with campaign aide Cynthia Hampton, the wife of the senator's chief of staff at the time. Ensign eventually dismissed them both.

The Republican leader also refused to comment on new details that Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., tried to broker a payment of restitution from Ensign to the Hamptons.

McConnell, R-Ky., had been asked about a report in The New York Times that said Ensign tried to get Doug Hampton, his lover's husband, a lobbying job to try to contain the damage. The Hamptons later went through Coburn to seek an $8.5 million settlement from the Nevada Republican before the affair became public, the paper said.

Other Senate Republicans took McConnell's lead: none immediately came to the defense of their embattled colleagues.

It was not immediately clear what Ensign's political future held. The Senate Ethics Committee automatically opened a preliminary investigation into his conduct after receiving a complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in June. The panel, which conducts business in strict confidentiality, can launch investigations on lawmakers on its own without receiving a complaint from an outside party.

The Times report raised questions about whether Doug Hampton lobbied Ensign and whether the senator facilitated the arrangement. Federal criminal law imposes a one-year ban on former congressional aides lobbying their ex-bosses or office colleagues.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091002/ap_on_go_co/us_ensign

Yeah. Well this is already old news, so I wouldn't get too excited about this stuff. Ensign probably won't get more than a slap on the wrist and I'm betting that nothing at all will happen to Coburn.

Here's a link to the actual NY Times article, if you're interested...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/politics/02ensign.html?pagewanted=1&sq=john%20ensign&st=cse&scp=2

Here's how the article ends...

Quote :

While several citizens’ watchdog groups have called for an ethics investigation into Mr. Ensign’s conduct, there are no signs of any active inquiries. Mr. Ensign’s string of apologies and his back-to-business demeanor in the months since his news conference appear to have helped him ride out the political storm. Over the last week, he made the news again, for opposing a major element of President Obama’s health care plans. References to the affair were no longer attached to his name.

Drip..drip...drip..

Ensign inquiries broaden

Quote :

The Justice Department and Senate investigators are broadening their inquiries into Sen. John Ensign’s sex scandal, sources told POLITICO, amid a new report appearing to show additional, previously undisclosed, efforts by the Nevada Republican to land a job for the aggrieved husband of his former mistress.

The FBI began initial interviews with key players in the Ensign scandal in January, weeks after the Senate Ethics Committee began issuing subpoenas in the case. Sources say the Justice Department investigation remains in an information-gathering phase, but it is moving swiftly and could soon turn into a full-fledged inquiry that would put further strain on the embattled senator’s political career. To date, no information has been presented to a federal grand jury, but that could soon change, according to sources familiar with the case.

The heightened pace of the inquiries comes amid a New York Times report Wednesday night disclosing new e-mails from 2008 showing that Ensign urged a Las Vegas firm to hire his former top Senate aide Doug Hampton as its lobbyist – in what could have been an effort to contain the fallout of the senator’s affair with Hampton’s wife, Cindy. The e-mails could be damaging if investigators determine that Ensign conspired to help Hampton violate federal ethics laws that prohibit former aides from lobbying their one-time bosses within a mandated cooling off period.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34246.html#ixzz0hq6TpWIC

Welcome back Sharon Angle

Ensign will not run for re-election
By: CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash

Quote :

(CNN) - Sen. John Ensign of Nevada will go before cameras in Las Vegas Monday afternoon, to announce that he will not run for re-election next year, two sources tell CNN.

The two term Republican will make a statement at noon local (3 p.m. ET) at the Lloyd G. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas.

The one-time rising star in the Republican party admitted last June to an extramarital affair with Cindy Hampton, his onetime campaign treasurer. She is the wife of Doug Hampton, a former top aide to the senator.

Ensign's office announced last December that the senator had been told that he was no longer a target of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he violated the law in an effort to cover up the affair.