Sen. Ensign admits extramarital affair
Moderators: yankee-in-france, Fashionista
by gwen » Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:34 pm
Ensign’s pal lacked usual qualifications for top job
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact), Torey Van Oot (contact)
Sun, Jul 5, 2009 (2 a.m.)
When Sen. John Ensign hired Doug Hampton to be his senior aide in November 2006, Nevada Republicans were baffled.
Hampton was an unknown, without a policy profile or political experience.
According to eight Nevada and Washington Republicans, Hampton’s chief qualification: He and Ensign were best friends, as were their wives.
“It was a hire based on a relationship,” said a prominent Republican who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
“Best pals,” said another Republican. “It was ridiculous.”
Ensign’s decision to hire Hampton turned out to be fateful. From the end of 2007 until August 2008, Ensign had an affair with Hampton’s wife, Cynthia, who also worked for Ensign. The senator acknowledged the affair last month in a brief statement.
The matter threatens to destroy the career of the second-term lawmaker, who had been considered a rising star in Republican politics. Ensign faces the possibility of multiple investigations related to the affair, his relationships with his employees and payments to the Hamptons. Ensign and the Hamptons declined to be interviewed for this story.
Among the questions Republicans are asking:
Why did Ensign hire the Hamptons?
More fundamentally, who are they?
An unusually low profile
Few people in Washington or Nevada are familiar with the one-time top aide, which is unusual. Senior aides to U.S. senators are generally well known in policy and political circles, especially if the senator has a profile as high as the one Ensign enjoyed.
Cynthia Hampton and Darlene Ensign have been friends since they both attended Canyon High School in Anaheim, Calif. Cynthia and Doug Hampton married in the late 1980s, and they lived in Orange County, Calif., in the 1990s.
Doug Hampton, who has a business management degree from California State University, Fullerton, worked in the Southern California aerospace industry for more than 25 years, according to a biography distributed at a 2006 energy industry conference.
In 2004, the Hamptons purchased a 4,360-square-foot stucco villa on a cul-de-sac in a Summerlin-area gated community for $1.2 million. The Ensigns live nearby. The Hamptons keep mostly to themselves, said several neighbors who requested anonymity because of the high profile nature of the dispute.
When the Hamptons first came to Nevada, Doug Hampton got a job at what was then Nevada Power. A Republican source said Ensign helped Hampton land there. He was a manager in the conservation department. At the time, before the company won credit for conservation toward its required renewable energy portfolio, the department was likely not viewed as a place for rising stars.
Cynthia Hampton went to work for the Ensign political operation, where she would stay until April 2008, months before the affair ended.
The Hamptons were not politically active and did not donate money to political campaigns, which is consistent with what appears to be their largely apolitical life in Southern California, according to campaign records.
The families bonded through shared history, as well as children and faith, people who know them say.
Doug and Cynthia Hampton have three children, as do the Ensigns. The Hamptons have twins who attend Faith Lutheran High School, a private academy in Las Vegas. Blake Hampton and the Ensigns’ son Trevor are in the same grade and were close friends who played on the golf and basketball teams together, said a former teammate who graduated in 2007.
The Hampton and Ensign families also shared conservative evangelism, according to people who know them. The men shared a commitment to the principles of Promise Keepers, a Christian fellowship that espouses strong marriages and families.
Friends, then employees
The personal side of their lives spread into the professional when Ensign hired the couple. Cynthia Hampton became treasurer of Ensign’s reelection campaign and his Battle Born Political Action Committee in 2007. She saw her salary double during the affair, before she left the job in May 2008.
An Ensign spokesman said Cynthia Hampton received a pay increase at Battle Born PAC and Ensign for Senate when she became responsible for direct mail, accounting and compliance.
Doug Hampton made $160,000 annually in his Senate job.
The Hamptons’ 19-year-old son, Brandon, received $5,400 from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Ensign controlled, for work as an intern in summer 2008.
The Ensign spokesman said Doug Hampton approached the committee’s staff about hiring his son in spring 2008. He said Brandon Hampton worked as a full-time intern and his pay was consistent with his responsibilities. The young man went to Washington after finishing high school and planned to return to Las Vegas to attend college after the summer, the spokesman said. John Ensign was not consulted as part of the decision to hire Brandon Hampton at the committee, he added.
Help from Ensign
Doug Hampton left Ensign’s office in April 2008, some months after he discovered the affair. He went to work at a political firm, November Inc., which has close ties to Ensign. Hampton then went to work at Allegiant Air, whose CEO has given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Ensign.
Sources for Allegiant Air and in Republican politics say Ensign was instrumental in helping Hampton land those jobs, fueling questions about whether these payments and jobs were hush money.
In early 2008 the Hamptons put their two-story, five-bedroom, 5 1/2 bathroom home on the market for $1.66 million, according to one neighbor. It has not sold.
Ensign’s associates told other media outlets he had been “extorted” by the Hamptons, though his spokesman later said he revealed the affair because the Hamptons approached a major news outlet after asking for a large sum of money.
The Las Vegas Sun disclosed the nature of that approach last month. Doug Hampton wrote a letter to Fox news detailing the affair, but the document drew attention here and in Washington almost as much for its style as its substance.
In the world of Washington, home to driven, type-A perfectionists, Doug Hampton’s single-spaced missive stood out for its clunky English and spelling errors. For example: “I have great respect and affection for Fox News and many of your collages,” he wrote, meaning colleagues.
The letter leads back to the question Republicans are asking: Why did Ensign hire Hampton?
“There a lot of people who do this stuff for a living who could have done that job,” said Chuck Muth, the conservative activist and former executive director of the state Republican Party.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/05 ... s-top-job/
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact), Torey Van Oot (contact)
Sun, Jul 5, 2009 (2 a.m.)
When Sen. John Ensign hired Doug Hampton to be his senior aide in November 2006, Nevada Republicans were baffled.
Hampton was an unknown, without a policy profile or political experience.
According to eight Nevada and Washington Republicans, Hampton’s chief qualification: He and Ensign were best friends, as were their wives.
“It was a hire based on a relationship,” said a prominent Republican who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
“Best pals,” said another Republican. “It was ridiculous.”
Ensign’s decision to hire Hampton turned out to be fateful. From the end of 2007 until August 2008, Ensign had an affair with Hampton’s wife, Cynthia, who also worked for Ensign. The senator acknowledged the affair last month in a brief statement.
The matter threatens to destroy the career of the second-term lawmaker, who had been considered a rising star in Republican politics. Ensign faces the possibility of multiple investigations related to the affair, his relationships with his employees and payments to the Hamptons. Ensign and the Hamptons declined to be interviewed for this story.
Among the questions Republicans are asking:
Why did Ensign hire the Hamptons?
More fundamentally, who are they?
An unusually low profile
Few people in Washington or Nevada are familiar with the one-time top aide, which is unusual. Senior aides to U.S. senators are generally well known in policy and political circles, especially if the senator has a profile as high as the one Ensign enjoyed.
Cynthia Hampton and Darlene Ensign have been friends since they both attended Canyon High School in Anaheim, Calif. Cynthia and Doug Hampton married in the late 1980s, and they lived in Orange County, Calif., in the 1990s.
Doug Hampton, who has a business management degree from California State University, Fullerton, worked in the Southern California aerospace industry for more than 25 years, according to a biography distributed at a 2006 energy industry conference.
In 2004, the Hamptons purchased a 4,360-square-foot stucco villa on a cul-de-sac in a Summerlin-area gated community for $1.2 million. The Ensigns live nearby. The Hamptons keep mostly to themselves, said several neighbors who requested anonymity because of the high profile nature of the dispute.
When the Hamptons first came to Nevada, Doug Hampton got a job at what was then Nevada Power. A Republican source said Ensign helped Hampton land there. He was a manager in the conservation department. At the time, before the company won credit for conservation toward its required renewable energy portfolio, the department was likely not viewed as a place for rising stars.
Cynthia Hampton went to work for the Ensign political operation, where she would stay until April 2008, months before the affair ended.
The Hamptons were not politically active and did not donate money to political campaigns, which is consistent with what appears to be their largely apolitical life in Southern California, according to campaign records.
The families bonded through shared history, as well as children and faith, people who know them say.
Doug and Cynthia Hampton have three children, as do the Ensigns. The Hamptons have twins who attend Faith Lutheran High School, a private academy in Las Vegas. Blake Hampton and the Ensigns’ son Trevor are in the same grade and were close friends who played on the golf and basketball teams together, said a former teammate who graduated in 2007.
The Hampton and Ensign families also shared conservative evangelism, according to people who know them. The men shared a commitment to the principles of Promise Keepers, a Christian fellowship that espouses strong marriages and families.
Friends, then employees
The personal side of their lives spread into the professional when Ensign hired the couple. Cynthia Hampton became treasurer of Ensign’s reelection campaign and his Battle Born Political Action Committee in 2007. She saw her salary double during the affair, before she left the job in May 2008.
An Ensign spokesman said Cynthia Hampton received a pay increase at Battle Born PAC and Ensign for Senate when she became responsible for direct mail, accounting and compliance.
Doug Hampton made $160,000 annually in his Senate job.
The Hamptons’ 19-year-old son, Brandon, received $5,400 from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Ensign controlled, for work as an intern in summer 2008.
The Ensign spokesman said Doug Hampton approached the committee’s staff about hiring his son in spring 2008. He said Brandon Hampton worked as a full-time intern and his pay was consistent with his responsibilities. The young man went to Washington after finishing high school and planned to return to Las Vegas to attend college after the summer, the spokesman said. John Ensign was not consulted as part of the decision to hire Brandon Hampton at the committee, he added.
Help from Ensign
Doug Hampton left Ensign’s office in April 2008, some months after he discovered the affair. He went to work at a political firm, November Inc., which has close ties to Ensign. Hampton then went to work at Allegiant Air, whose CEO has given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Ensign.
Sources for Allegiant Air and in Republican politics say Ensign was instrumental in helping Hampton land those jobs, fueling questions about whether these payments and jobs were hush money.
In early 2008 the Hamptons put their two-story, five-bedroom, 5 1/2 bathroom home on the market for $1.66 million, according to one neighbor. It has not sold.
Ensign’s associates told other media outlets he had been “extorted” by the Hamptons, though his spokesman later said he revealed the affair because the Hamptons approached a major news outlet after asking for a large sum of money.
The Las Vegas Sun disclosed the nature of that approach last month. Doug Hampton wrote a letter to Fox news detailing the affair, but the document drew attention here and in Washington almost as much for its style as its substance.
In the world of Washington, home to driven, type-A perfectionists, Doug Hampton’s single-spaced missive stood out for its clunky English and spelling errors. For example: “I have great respect and affection for Fox News and many of your collages,” he wrote, meaning colleagues.
The letter leads back to the question Republicans are asking: Why did Ensign hire Hampton?
“There a lot of people who do this stuff for a living who could have done that job,” said Chuck Muth, the conservative activist and former executive director of the state Republican Party.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/05 ... s-top-job/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
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by gwen » Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:33 pm
Ensign "letter" to mistress: I used you for "pleasure"
Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston -- who owns Nevada politics -- has published an emotional, self-lacerating handwritten letter purported to be from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) to his mistress Cynthia Hampton.
Ralston interviewed Doug Hampton, Cynthia's husband and Ensign's former Chief of Staff, who gave him the letter, Ralston tells me.
"I used you for my own pleasure, not letting thoughts of you, Doug, [childrens’ names] come into my mind...I betrayed everything I believed in and lied to myself over + over. I justified my actions because I blamed my wife," the senator wrote.
In a two-part interview, which is due to run on the columnist's TV show "Face to Face," Hampton also claims that Ensign wrote the letter in the presence of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), his close friend and Washington roommate.
Hampton says Coburn, who shares Ensign's Christian faith, urged him to end the affair -- and urged Ensign, whose family owns a local casino, to help the Hamptons pay off their onerous, high-interest mortgage.
A call to the offices of Ensign and Coburn weren't immediately returned.
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:38 pm
Hampton speaks publicly, says Ensign pursued affair despite advice
Doug Hampton spoke publicly for the first time today about the affair his wife had with Sen. John Ensign, saying the Nevada Republican continued his pursuit even after intermediaries tried to get him to stop.
Hampton said that Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and others urged him to end the affair and help the Hamptons pay off their home and move to Colorado. But Ensign was so infatuated that he continued, Hampton said.
Hampton’s comments came during an exclusive two-part interview with Sun columnist Jon Ralston, to air tonight and tomorrow on “Face to Face with Jon Ralston.”
Cynthia Hampton was the treasurer of Ensign’s political action committee and re-election campaign, while Doug Hampton served as a senior aide on Ensign’s Senate staff.
Hampton said the affair began while his family was staying at the Ensign home. Hampton said his family’s house was broken into just before Christmas 2007, at which time the Ensigns invited the Hamptons to stay with them in a nearby Summerlin neighborhood.
The families each have three children and their friendship goes back decades.
Hampton discovered the affair when he saw an incriminating text message, he said.
The families confronted the issue in full on Christmas Eve.
Still, Hampton said, Ensign continued to pursue Cynthia Hampton with text messages and phone calls.
Hampton seemed to suggest his wife Cynthia was powerless to prevent the continuing affair.
Hampton and Ensign were bonded by their conservative evangelical faith. Hampton said he reached out to intermediaries involved in a Christian fellowship home in Washington, D.C., where Ensign and several other powerful Washington figures live.
The group, including Coburn, a well-known conservative, confronted Ensign and suggested that the Hamptons needed to be given financial assistance -- in the millions of dollars -- to pay off their $1 million-plus mortgage and move them to a new life away from Ensign.
During the confrontation, Ensign agreed to write a letter to Cynthia Hampton expressing remorse, Hampton said.
The letter, which was authenticated by Ralston’s executive producer Dana Gentry, is filled with contrition: “I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure not letting thoughts of you, Doug, Brandon, Blake or Brittany come into my mind,” he wrote, referring to the Hampton children.
But after sending the letter, which bears the date “Feb. 2008,” Hampton said Ensign quickly disavowed it in a conversation with Cynthia Hampton and continued to pursue her.
Hampton said that on that same February weekend, Ensign told him, “I’m in love with your wife.”
Some time later, according to Hampton, Ensign’s wife Darlene Ensign reached out to top Ensign political aide Mike Slanker, asking him to set up Hampton with political and lobbying work.
Hampton said he tried but failed to extricate himself from the situation.
“John is so focused, hyper-focused on what he wants….that he’s not seeing the collateral damage that’s going on in people’s lives,” he said.
Ensign could not be immediately reached for comment.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/08 ... ld-resign/
Doug Hampton spoke publicly for the first time today about the affair his wife had with Sen. John Ensign, saying the Nevada Republican continued his pursuit even after intermediaries tried to get him to stop.
Hampton said that Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and others urged him to end the affair and help the Hamptons pay off their home and move to Colorado. But Ensign was so infatuated that he continued, Hampton said.
Hampton’s comments came during an exclusive two-part interview with Sun columnist Jon Ralston, to air tonight and tomorrow on “Face to Face with Jon Ralston.”
Cynthia Hampton was the treasurer of Ensign’s political action committee and re-election campaign, while Doug Hampton served as a senior aide on Ensign’s Senate staff.
Hampton said the affair began while his family was staying at the Ensign home. Hampton said his family’s house was broken into just before Christmas 2007, at which time the Ensigns invited the Hamptons to stay with them in a nearby Summerlin neighborhood.
The families each have three children and their friendship goes back decades.
Hampton discovered the affair when he saw an incriminating text message, he said.
The families confronted the issue in full on Christmas Eve.
Still, Hampton said, Ensign continued to pursue Cynthia Hampton with text messages and phone calls.
Hampton seemed to suggest his wife Cynthia was powerless to prevent the continuing affair.
Hampton and Ensign were bonded by their conservative evangelical faith. Hampton said he reached out to intermediaries involved in a Christian fellowship home in Washington, D.C., where Ensign and several other powerful Washington figures live.
The group, including Coburn, a well-known conservative, confronted Ensign and suggested that the Hamptons needed to be given financial assistance -- in the millions of dollars -- to pay off their $1 million-plus mortgage and move them to a new life away from Ensign.
During the confrontation, Ensign agreed to write a letter to Cynthia Hampton expressing remorse, Hampton said.
The letter, which was authenticated by Ralston’s executive producer Dana Gentry, is filled with contrition: “I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure not letting thoughts of you, Doug, Brandon, Blake or Brittany come into my mind,” he wrote, referring to the Hampton children.
But after sending the letter, which bears the date “Feb. 2008,” Hampton said Ensign quickly disavowed it in a conversation with Cynthia Hampton and continued to pursue her.
Hampton said that on that same February weekend, Ensign told him, “I’m in love with your wife.”
Some time later, according to Hampton, Ensign’s wife Darlene Ensign reached out to top Ensign political aide Mike Slanker, asking him to set up Hampton with political and lobbying work.
Hampton said he tried but failed to extricate himself from the situation.
“John is so focused, hyper-focused on what he wants….that he’s not seeing the collateral damage that’s going on in people’s lives,” he said.
Ensign could not be immediately reached for comment.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/08 ... ld-resign/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
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Panel Debates Why Politicians and public can't stay Faithful
by olympic » Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:33 pm
The recent string of marital affairs conducted by high-profile politicians, such as Senator John Ensign and Governor Mark Sanford, has left the public wondering why so many politicians just can't seem to resist the temptation to cheat. TIME magazine's latest cover story examines the state of marriage in America, and concludes that the two-parent family in general is under assault.
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and TIME's Richard Stengel joined "Hardball" to analyze why cheating seems to be so much more prevalent these days. For Parker, a main factor is that "the temptation that's always been in place is exaggerated. There's more opportunities." That, combined with a politician's heightened sense of narcissism, probably explains a lot.
WATCH:
<div><iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/31806042#31806042" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><p>Visit msnbc.com for <a>Breaking News</a>, <a>World News</a>, and <a>News about the Economy</a></p></div>
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and TIME's Richard Stengel joined "Hardball" to analyze why cheating seems to be so much more prevalent these days. For Parker, a main factor is that "the temptation that's always been in place is exaggerated. There's more opportunities." That, combined with a politician's heightened sense of narcissism, probably explains a lot.
WATCH:
<div><iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/31806042#31806042" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><p>Visit msnbc.com for <a>Breaking News</a>, <a>World News</a>, and <a>News about the Economy</a></p></div>
- olympic
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by gwen » Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:53 pm
Sen. Ensign Paid Mistress $25,000 Severance, Husband Says
LAS VEGAS -- The sex scandal engulfing Sen. John Ensign deepened Wednesday after his former mistress's husband revealed new details about the relationship, saying the senator paid the woman over $25,000 in severance when she stopped working for him.
Doug Hampton also provided a letter to the Las Vegas Sun newspaper that he claimed was a handwritten apology from Ensign to Cindy Hampton, a former treasurer for the senator's campaign committees. "I used you for my own pleasure," the letter reads, later adding. "Plain and simple it was a sin."
The letter and interview with the newspaper mark another embarrassment for Ensign, a 51-year-old Christian conservative Republican who abruptly came forward last month and confessed to the affair. In addition, a severance payment could pose campaign finance and ethics issues for the Republican if the amount was not disclosed.
Neither Ensign's spokesman nor his attorney returned a call seeking comment.
Hampton told the newspaper that he learned of the affair between his friend the senator and his wife when he discovered an incriminating text message. He also detailed a February 2008 meeting in which he, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and others encouraged Ensign to end the affair, as well as the working relationship with the Hamptons. Hampton said Coburn and others tried to encourage Ensign to compensate the couple and help them relocate.
"These men were the ones that said, 'What we need to do is get Doug Hampton's home paid for, and we need to get Doug Hampton some money. We need to get his family to Colorado,"' Hampton said in the interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, would not comment directly on the specific advice that Coburn gave Ensign.
Coburn "did everything he could to encourage Senator Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Senator Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hamptons marriage," Hart said.
Doug Hampton said the men encouraged Ensign to write the letter of apology. The senator later told his mistress to ignore the note, Hampton said.
In the Feb. 2008 letter posted on the newspaper's Web site, someone signing their name "John" says he takes "100 percent responsibility for my actions." "God never intended us to do this. I walked away from Him and my relationship with Him has suffered terribly," the letter reads.
Doug Hampton also worked for Ensign as a Senate aide. He claims his wife received the payment as severance when she left her position in May 2008. Both men say the affair continued until August 2008.
The two families are longtime friends. They both live in the upscale suburbs west of the Las Vegas Strip and their children have attended the same school.
Ensign's office has acknowledged helping Doug Hampton get work once he left the Senate office, first as a consultant and then as a lobbyist for an airline run by an Ensign contributor.
Through a spokesman, Ensign has accused Doug Hampton of recently making "exorbitant demands for cash and other financial benefits."
Hampton said in the interview that attorneys for the men have been in negotiations over "millions" in possible payments from the senator. Ensign, through his spokesman, has refused to answer questions on whether any payments have been made.
Campaign committee records do not show a large payment to Cindy Hampton when she left her job. If the payment occurred, it could present a possible campaign finance disclosure violation, campaign finance attorney Kenneth Gross said.
The nature of the violation and penalty depends on "how the senator chooses to characterize the payment," he said.
"It's an entangled situation and like most circumstances the devil is in the details on whether its described as gift or income, and whether there are tax or campaign disclosure laws implicated," Gross said.
Earlier reports of the possible severance prompted a Washington watchdog group to file a complaint against Ensign with the Senate Ethics Committee.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics alleges Ensign may have violated ethics and campaign finance rules by failing to report the payment to Cindy Hampton as an in-kind contribution from his leadership political action committee.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07 ... latestnews
LAS VEGAS -- The sex scandal engulfing Sen. John Ensign deepened Wednesday after his former mistress's husband revealed new details about the relationship, saying the senator paid the woman over $25,000 in severance when she stopped working for him.
Doug Hampton also provided a letter to the Las Vegas Sun newspaper that he claimed was a handwritten apology from Ensign to Cindy Hampton, a former treasurer for the senator's campaign committees. "I used you for my own pleasure," the letter reads, later adding. "Plain and simple it was a sin."
The letter and interview with the newspaper mark another embarrassment for Ensign, a 51-year-old Christian conservative Republican who abruptly came forward last month and confessed to the affair. In addition, a severance payment could pose campaign finance and ethics issues for the Republican if the amount was not disclosed.
Neither Ensign's spokesman nor his attorney returned a call seeking comment.
Hampton told the newspaper that he learned of the affair between his friend the senator and his wife when he discovered an incriminating text message. He also detailed a February 2008 meeting in which he, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and others encouraged Ensign to end the affair, as well as the working relationship with the Hamptons. Hampton said Coburn and others tried to encourage Ensign to compensate the couple and help them relocate.
"These men were the ones that said, 'What we need to do is get Doug Hampton's home paid for, and we need to get Doug Hampton some money. We need to get his family to Colorado,"' Hampton said in the interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, would not comment directly on the specific advice that Coburn gave Ensign.
Coburn "did everything he could to encourage Senator Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Senator Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hamptons marriage," Hart said.
Doug Hampton said the men encouraged Ensign to write the letter of apology. The senator later told his mistress to ignore the note, Hampton said.
In the Feb. 2008 letter posted on the newspaper's Web site, someone signing their name "John" says he takes "100 percent responsibility for my actions." "God never intended us to do this. I walked away from Him and my relationship with Him has suffered terribly," the letter reads.
Doug Hampton also worked for Ensign as a Senate aide. He claims his wife received the payment as severance when she left her position in May 2008. Both men say the affair continued until August 2008.
The two families are longtime friends. They both live in the upscale suburbs west of the Las Vegas Strip and their children have attended the same school.
Ensign's office has acknowledged helping Doug Hampton get work once he left the Senate office, first as a consultant and then as a lobbyist for an airline run by an Ensign contributor.
Through a spokesman, Ensign has accused Doug Hampton of recently making "exorbitant demands for cash and other financial benefits."
Hampton said in the interview that attorneys for the men have been in negotiations over "millions" in possible payments from the senator. Ensign, through his spokesman, has refused to answer questions on whether any payments have been made.
Campaign committee records do not show a large payment to Cindy Hampton when she left her job. If the payment occurred, it could present a possible campaign finance disclosure violation, campaign finance attorney Kenneth Gross said.
The nature of the violation and penalty depends on "how the senator chooses to characterize the payment," he said.
"It's an entangled situation and like most circumstances the devil is in the details on whether its described as gift or income, and whether there are tax or campaign disclosure laws implicated," Gross said.
Earlier reports of the possible severance prompted a Washington watchdog group to file a complaint against Ensign with the Senate Ethics Committee.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics alleges Ensign may have violated ethics and campaign finance rules by failing to report the payment to Cindy Hampton as an in-kind contribution from his leadership political action committee.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07 ... latestnews
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
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by pax » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:13 am
gwen wrote:Geeez...this man Hampton is demanding money like he pimped his wife out to Ensign. Where the hell is his wife in this? She has not said a word. How screwed up can you get!
I know, lol. This guy Hampton seems to have taken the 'greed is good' thing a bit too far.
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by gwen » Thu Jul 09, 2009 2:27 pm
John Ensign paid $96k to mistress's family
Sen. John Ensign's attorney acknowledged Thursday that the Nevada Republican's parents paid nearly $100,000 to the family of his mistress after she and her husband left his staff in April 2008.
In a statement from Paul Coggins, Ensign's attorney, said that the senator gave Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton and their two children gifts worth $96,000 and that "each gift was limited to $12,000."
"The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts," Coggins said.
Coggins said that after Ensign told his parents about his affair with Cindy Hampton - who was an then a campaign aide - the senator's 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."
Ensign's attorney said that none of the gifts came from campaign or official funds and were not related to his official duties, saying that he complied with all ethics laws.
His disclosure comes as the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called on the Justice Department to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing of Ensign reportedly giving Cindy Hampton more than $25,000 in a severance package. The group says that under federal law, failing to report contributions more than $25,000 can result in five years in jail.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/07 ... KnAGX8S9&D
Sen. John Ensign's attorney acknowledged Thursday that the Nevada Republican's parents paid nearly $100,000 to the family of his mistress after she and her husband left his staff in April 2008.
In a statement from Paul Coggins, Ensign's attorney, said that the senator gave Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton and their two children gifts worth $96,000 and that "each gift was limited to $12,000."
"The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts," Coggins said.
Coggins said that after Ensign told his parents about his affair with Cindy Hampton - who was an then a campaign aide - the senator's 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."
Ensign's attorney said that none of the gifts came from campaign or official funds and were not related to his official duties, saying that he complied with all ethics laws.
His disclosure comes as the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called on the Justice Department to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing of Ensign reportedly giving Cindy Hampton more than $25,000 in a severance package. The group says that under federal law, failing to report contributions more than $25,000 can result in five years in jail.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/07 ... KnAGX8S9&D
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
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by gwen » Thu Jul 09, 2009 2:30 pm
CREW calls for criminal probe of Ensign
The nonpartisan Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wants the Justice Department to investigate allegations that fidelity-challenged Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) paid more than $25,000 in severance cash to mistress Cynthia Hampton and her husband Doug.
CREW has previously filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee. But the group's executive director Melanie Sloan says that former Ensign COS Doug Hampton's recent claim that Ensign paid in excess of $25,000 to his family elevated their compliant into the criminal realm.
"We know that the severance payment is over 25,000 that's the threshold for a felony," she told POLITICO.
Sloan predicted that DOJ would be reluctant to dive into a politically-connected case but added, "I think it's hard when a U.S. Senator is out there -- when there are credible allegations. It's hard for Justice to sit this one out though I wouldn't be surprised if they deferred to the FEC."
Calls to DOJ and Ensign's office weren't immediately returned.
On Wednesday, Doug Hampton told Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston that Ensign had paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance payments when she left her job as campaign treasurer.
If investigators determine those payments were improper, Ensign could be charged with a crime, Sloan said.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthru ... nsign.html
The nonpartisan Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wants the Justice Department to investigate allegations that fidelity-challenged Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) paid more than $25,000 in severance cash to mistress Cynthia Hampton and her husband Doug.
CREW has previously filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee. But the group's executive director Melanie Sloan says that former Ensign COS Doug Hampton's recent claim that Ensign paid in excess of $25,000 to his family elevated their compliant into the criminal realm.
"We know that the severance payment is over 25,000 that's the threshold for a felony," she told POLITICO.
Sloan predicted that DOJ would be reluctant to dive into a politically-connected case but added, "I think it's hard when a U.S. Senator is out there -- when there are credible allegations. It's hard for Justice to sit this one out though I wouldn't be surprised if they deferred to the FEC."
Calls to DOJ and Ensign's office weren't immediately returned.
On Wednesday, Doug Hampton told Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston that Ensign had paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance payments when she left her job as campaign treasurer.
If investigators determine those payments were improper, Ensign could be charged with a crime, Sloan said.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthru ... nsign.html
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by PerryPeabody » Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:06 pm
gwen wrote:
Ensign "letter" to mistress: I used you for "pleasure"
Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston -- who owns Nevada politics -- has published an emotional, self-lacerating handwritten letter purported to be from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) to his mistress Cynthia Hampton.
Ralston interviewed Doug Hampton, Cynthia's husband and Ensign's former Chief of Staff, who gave him the letter, Ralston tells me.
"I used you for my own pleasure, not letting thoughts of you, Doug, [childrens’ names] come into my mind...I betrayed everything I believed in and lied to myself over + over. I justified my actions because I blamed my wife," the senator wrote.
In a two-part interview, which is due to run on the columnist's TV show "Face to Face," Hampton also claims that Ensign wrote the letter in the presence of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), his close friend and Washington roommate.
Hampton says Coburn, who shares Ensign's Christian faith, urged him to end the affair -- and urged Ensign, whose family owns a local casino, to help the Hamptons pay off their onerous, high-interest mortgage.
A call to the offices of Ensign and Coburn weren't immediately returned.
Miscellaneous, unimportant thoughts:
Why do I feel a gigantic aura of insincerity about everything connected with this "case"?
And, at the risk of sounding very sacrilegious, what if "Him" is really "Her" or "It" or "The-Puerto Rican-Bath-Attendant" in the Friedman play, Steambath?
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PerryPeabody - Posts: 2205
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by PerryPeabody » Fri Jul 10, 2009 3:41 pm
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PerryPeabody - Posts: 2205
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by gwen » Sat Jul 11, 2009 1:24 am
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
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by gwen » Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:07 am
Hampton: Religious Buddies Drove Ensign To FedEx To Mail Letter To Cindy
By Zachary Roth - July 10, 2009, 11:58AM
We're probably not going out on a limb by saying that Doug Hampton's entire televised interview about John Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife Cindy, and the fallout from it, had to have been pretty embarrassing for the Nevada senator, if he's even been able to bring himself to watch it.
But one particular narrative that Hampton lays out really brings out what seems like the utter pathetic-ness of a man who Republicans once talked about as presidential material -- as well as the strangely paternalistic culture of the religious organization with which he's affiliated. And it jibes with yesterday's news that Ensign went to his parents to pay off the Hamptons, painting a picture of a man who, despite being 51 years old and a powerful US senator, still seems strangely weak-willed and dependent on those around him.
Hampton told his interviewer, Jon Ralston, that after discovering that Ensign was sleeping with Cindy Hampton -- and rightly not trusting the senator's assurances that the affair was over -- Doug Hampton went to a group of men associated with the C Street Christian fellowship to which Ensign belonged, and asked them to "confront" Ensign.
Already we're in weird territory here: couldn't Hampton have just kept this between himself, his wife, and the Ensigns? Why bring in these outsiders? Hampton's determination to avoid recognizing that his wife had any agency in the affair, and his decision to address it in an outside men-only forum, goes beyond self-delusion and into a kind of misogyny. But set that aside because things get weirder...
Hampton went on to name four of the men who confronted Ensign: Tim Coe, David Coe, Marty Sherman, and Sen. Tom Coburn. The Coes are the sons of Doug Coe, the influential pastor and longtime leader of The Family, the secretive Christian group with which the C Street fellowship is affiliated. Sherman also has been involved with the Family. "They have a good heart," Hampton said of the men. (He did not address the question of how the men survive while sharing a crucial bodily organ.)
At that confrontation, according to Hampton, Coburn and the other men urged Ensign -- the son of a multimillionaire casino magnate -- to pay for the Hamptons' home and for a move to Colorado. But as Hampton described it, they also insisted that Ensign write a letter to his girlfriend -- later obtained by the Las Vegas Sun -- breaking things off and expressing remorse. Then, says Hampton, two of the men, Tim Coe and Sherman, actually drove Ensign to a FedEx office, apparently to make sure he sent the letter.
And yet, Hampton said that soon after ditching his detail of religious protectors, Ensign called Cindy to warn her that the letter was coming and that she should disregard it. Twenty-four hours after sending the letter, said Hampton, Ensign was with Cindy in Las Vegas.
Now, Ensign's sex life is basically his own and his wife's business. But when a US senator submits to a lecture about that sex life from a group of outsiders, then has himself driven to FedEx to mail a letter breaking things off with his girlfriend -- who, incidentally, is his best friend's wife -- before secretly disavowing the letter right afterward and continuing the affair, he simply becomes hard to take seriously as a human being, much less as any kind of candidate for anything.
And in case that doesn't make Ensign out to be pathetic enough, there's a capper: after all this, when it finally came time to cover his tracks and get the Hamptons out of his office, he couldn't find it in him to tell Cindy himself -- he needed his religious buddies even for that. "Cindy ultimately was asked to leave basically by The Family," Doug Hampton told Ralston.
Leaning on his parents for a lousy hundred grand starts to seem like a stand-up move, by comparison.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... hp?ref=fpb
By Zachary Roth - July 10, 2009, 11:58AM
We're probably not going out on a limb by saying that Doug Hampton's entire televised interview about John Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife Cindy, and the fallout from it, had to have been pretty embarrassing for the Nevada senator, if he's even been able to bring himself to watch it.
But one particular narrative that Hampton lays out really brings out what seems like the utter pathetic-ness of a man who Republicans once talked about as presidential material -- as well as the strangely paternalistic culture of the religious organization with which he's affiliated. And it jibes with yesterday's news that Ensign went to his parents to pay off the Hamptons, painting a picture of a man who, despite being 51 years old and a powerful US senator, still seems strangely weak-willed and dependent on those around him.
Hampton told his interviewer, Jon Ralston, that after discovering that Ensign was sleeping with Cindy Hampton -- and rightly not trusting the senator's assurances that the affair was over -- Doug Hampton went to a group of men associated with the C Street Christian fellowship to which Ensign belonged, and asked them to "confront" Ensign.
Already we're in weird territory here: couldn't Hampton have just kept this between himself, his wife, and the Ensigns? Why bring in these outsiders? Hampton's determination to avoid recognizing that his wife had any agency in the affair, and his decision to address it in an outside men-only forum, goes beyond self-delusion and into a kind of misogyny. But set that aside because things get weirder...
Hampton went on to name four of the men who confronted Ensign: Tim Coe, David Coe, Marty Sherman, and Sen. Tom Coburn. The Coes are the sons of Doug Coe, the influential pastor and longtime leader of The Family, the secretive Christian group with which the C Street fellowship is affiliated. Sherman also has been involved with the Family. "They have a good heart," Hampton said of the men. (He did not address the question of how the men survive while sharing a crucial bodily organ.)
At that confrontation, according to Hampton, Coburn and the other men urged Ensign -- the son of a multimillionaire casino magnate -- to pay for the Hamptons' home and for a move to Colorado. But as Hampton described it, they also insisted that Ensign write a letter to his girlfriend -- later obtained by the Las Vegas Sun -- breaking things off and expressing remorse. Then, says Hampton, two of the men, Tim Coe and Sherman, actually drove Ensign to a FedEx office, apparently to make sure he sent the letter.
And yet, Hampton said that soon after ditching his detail of religious protectors, Ensign called Cindy to warn her that the letter was coming and that she should disregard it. Twenty-four hours after sending the letter, said Hampton, Ensign was with Cindy in Las Vegas.
Now, Ensign's sex life is basically his own and his wife's business. But when a US senator submits to a lecture about that sex life from a group of outsiders, then has himself driven to FedEx to mail a letter breaking things off with his girlfriend -- who, incidentally, is his best friend's wife -- before secretly disavowing the letter right afterward and continuing the affair, he simply becomes hard to take seriously as a human being, much less as any kind of candidate for anything.
And in case that doesn't make Ensign out to be pathetic enough, there's a capper: after all this, when it finally came time to cover his tracks and get the Hamptons out of his office, he couldn't find it in him to tell Cindy himself -- he needed his religious buddies even for that. "Cindy ultimately was asked to leave basically by The Family," Doug Hampton told Ralston.
Leaning on his parents for a lousy hundred grand starts to seem like a stand-up move, by comparison.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... hp?ref=fpb
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:54 am
If shockers done, Ensign could stay in office, many say
If this happened to anyone else at any other workplace, the outcome would be certain.
If Sen. John Ensign were, say, a casino manager, and he embarked on an affair with his underling’s wife, who also worked for him, he would be shown the door, or maybe thrown through it.
But like President Bill Clinton before him, Ensign, the second-term Nevada Republican, lives and works by a different set of rules. Ensign’s employer, the people of Nevada, won’t have the power to fire him until 2012.
Ensign has said he will not resign. No Nevada elected official or other person of considerable stature has called for him to resign, and they likely won’t, unless there are more revelations like the one this week that Ensign’s parents paid the family of Cynthia Hampton, with whom he had an affair, nearly $100,000 around the time she left his employ in April 2008.
Observers suggest that the reticence of Nevada Republicans could be due in part to Nevadans’ apparent tolerance for the tawdry. As Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report noted, if Ensign should resign, what about Gov. Jim Gibbons, given the Republican governor’s many scandals and ugly public divorce?
On the other hand, it is possible Ensign’s family, and especially his intensely private father Mike Ensign, will pressure the senator to resign to prevent further public humiliation.
Beyond that, Ensign could face an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics for bringing disrepute on the upper chamber, as well as the Federal Election Commission if the large payments to the Hampton family are judged to be unreported campaign expenses.
But the machinery of Senate ethics and FEC investigations are so slow and so timid that Ensign could easily finish the remaining three years of his six-year term barely nicked by the imbroglio, Washington insiders say.
Paul Blumenthal, of the Washington watchdog group the Sunlight Foundation, recently summed up a widely held view of Senate Ethics: “The Ethics Committee is, as most know, a black hole where investigations go to die. Anyone remember that Ethics investigation into Sen. Ted Stevens? That’s right, it never happened,” Blumenthal wrote on his blog, referring to the Alaska senator convicted by a jury of accepting gifts from an oil contractor. The conviction was thrown out and the Justice Department chose not to refile charges, but critics say the ethics committee should have acted aside from any criminal case.
Another example: Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, or CREW, launched ethics complaints against Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., for receiving favorable terms on their home mortgages.
That was a year ago.
“It takes them forever,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, which offered ethics and FEC complaints against Ensign last month. “They’re terrible investigators,” she said, adding that although the staff is competent, senators are so reluctant to investigate or discipline their own that the committee is farcical.
David Lublin, a congressional scholar at American University, said, “One gets the sense the Senate would rather have the public process of the person not getting reelected.”
And a Washington lawyer with experience defending and investigating ethics cases said, “Investigating a senator for having an affair with an employee? It would create a panic on the Hill.”
Sloan said she envisions a letter of reprimand for Ensign, but nothing else.
The Senate was poised in 1995 to expel Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., for his serial sexual harassment, but he resigned first — the only time in recent history the Senate has come close to taking tough action.
The Federal Election Commission will investigate Ensign for the unreported $96,000 payment to the Hamptons. The FEC has jurisdiction because Cynthia Hampton was the treasurer of political committees controlled by the senator. If the payment was severance rather than a “gift,” as Ensign’s lawyer claims, the senator may have committed a felony by not reporting it.
But the FEC is not known for quickness or toughness.
“Feckless is a good word. And politically divided,” Lublin said.
“They’re dysfunctional,” Sloan said of the commission.
Sloan has asked the Justice Department to investigate, though prosecutors may not be eager to take up such a politically volatile case, preferring to let voters judge Ensign’s fate.
Although Ensign can likely survive them, these investigations will drag on, as would a potential civil suit by the Hamptons. And, they will produce damaging leaks and possibly new information.
The bottom line for Ensign: Assuming there is not another scandal dropping, he can survive, but it could be brutal.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/11 ... -many-say/
If this happened to anyone else at any other workplace, the outcome would be certain.
If Sen. John Ensign were, say, a casino manager, and he embarked on an affair with his underling’s wife, who also worked for him, he would be shown the door, or maybe thrown through it.
But like President Bill Clinton before him, Ensign, the second-term Nevada Republican, lives and works by a different set of rules. Ensign’s employer, the people of Nevada, won’t have the power to fire him until 2012.
Ensign has said he will not resign. No Nevada elected official or other person of considerable stature has called for him to resign, and they likely won’t, unless there are more revelations like the one this week that Ensign’s parents paid the family of Cynthia Hampton, with whom he had an affair, nearly $100,000 around the time she left his employ in April 2008.
Observers suggest that the reticence of Nevada Republicans could be due in part to Nevadans’ apparent tolerance for the tawdry. As Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report noted, if Ensign should resign, what about Gov. Jim Gibbons, given the Republican governor’s many scandals and ugly public divorce?
On the other hand, it is possible Ensign’s family, and especially his intensely private father Mike Ensign, will pressure the senator to resign to prevent further public humiliation.
Beyond that, Ensign could face an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics for bringing disrepute on the upper chamber, as well as the Federal Election Commission if the large payments to the Hampton family are judged to be unreported campaign expenses.
But the machinery of Senate ethics and FEC investigations are so slow and so timid that Ensign could easily finish the remaining three years of his six-year term barely nicked by the imbroglio, Washington insiders say.
Paul Blumenthal, of the Washington watchdog group the Sunlight Foundation, recently summed up a widely held view of Senate Ethics: “The Ethics Committee is, as most know, a black hole where investigations go to die. Anyone remember that Ethics investigation into Sen. Ted Stevens? That’s right, it never happened,” Blumenthal wrote on his blog, referring to the Alaska senator convicted by a jury of accepting gifts from an oil contractor. The conviction was thrown out and the Justice Department chose not to refile charges, but critics say the ethics committee should have acted aside from any criminal case.
Another example: Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, or CREW, launched ethics complaints against Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., for receiving favorable terms on their home mortgages.
That was a year ago.
“It takes them forever,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, which offered ethics and FEC complaints against Ensign last month. “They’re terrible investigators,” she said, adding that although the staff is competent, senators are so reluctant to investigate or discipline their own that the committee is farcical.
David Lublin, a congressional scholar at American University, said, “One gets the sense the Senate would rather have the public process of the person not getting reelected.”
And a Washington lawyer with experience defending and investigating ethics cases said, “Investigating a senator for having an affair with an employee? It would create a panic on the Hill.”
Sloan said she envisions a letter of reprimand for Ensign, but nothing else.
The Senate was poised in 1995 to expel Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., for his serial sexual harassment, but he resigned first — the only time in recent history the Senate has come close to taking tough action.
The Federal Election Commission will investigate Ensign for the unreported $96,000 payment to the Hamptons. The FEC has jurisdiction because Cynthia Hampton was the treasurer of political committees controlled by the senator. If the payment was severance rather than a “gift,” as Ensign’s lawyer claims, the senator may have committed a felony by not reporting it.
But the FEC is not known for quickness or toughness.
“Feckless is a good word. And politically divided,” Lublin said.
“They’re dysfunctional,” Sloan said of the commission.
Sloan has asked the Justice Department to investigate, though prosecutors may not be eager to take up such a politically volatile case, preferring to let voters judge Ensign’s fate.
Although Ensign can likely survive them, these investigations will drag on, as would a potential civil suit by the Hamptons. And, they will produce damaging leaks and possibly new information.
The bottom line for Ensign: Assuming there is not another scandal dropping, he can survive, but it could be brutal.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/11 ... -many-say/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by PerryPeabody » Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:34 am
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PerryPeabody - Posts: 2205
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by gwen » Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:19 pm
Ensign to stay in Senate, seek reelection
Fallout from affair, including ethics complaints, leaves him undeterred
Washington — Republican Sen. John Ensign said Monday that not only does he have no intention of resigning in light of his affair and his parents’ payout to the woman’s family, he plans to seek reelection when his term is up in 2012.
Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun he has received calls and e-mails of encouragement from supporters both in Nevada and Washington.
When asked Monday whether he had any thoughts about stepping down, Ensign said his supporters are sending one message: “They say, ‘Don’t.’ ”
“I fully plan on running for reelection,” Ensign said late Monday evening. “I’m going to work to earn their respect back.”
The two-term Republican senator was back on offense Monday, saying his support is coming from his fellow senators as well as those “on both sides” of Senate leadership.
Ensign said his supporters are telling him, “Keep your head up. This thing will pass.”
Discomfort over the Ensign affair escalated last week after the senator disclosed that his parents had paid $96,000 to the family of Cynthia Hampton, the campaign staffer with whom Ensign had the affair.
She and her husband, Doug Hampton, one of the senator’s top aides, had both left the senator’s employment around the time of the payment in April 2008.
The affair has drawn in Ensign’s colleagues, including Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a housemate in the Christian home they share in Washington. Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who recently admitted an affair with an Argentine woman, has said he sought counseling with those from the C Street house.
In a televised interview last week with Sun columnist Jon Ralston, Doug Hampton said Ensign paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance — a sum that raised alarm because it was not reported, as would have been required, on campaign disclosure statements.
Knowingly failing to report such a payment could be a felony violation of campaign finance law, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The organization has filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee and asked the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.
Doug Hampton also said Coburn had suggested a payment to the family, a claim Coburn has strenuously denied. Coburn has said he suggested only that Ensign repair the damage he had done.
Ensign’s father is a wealthy former casino mogul, and his parents structured the payments in a way that allows them to avoid taxes, each providing four members of the Hampton family payments of $12,000 each — the ceiling for gifts.
Ensign’s statement from his lawyer last week insisted the “payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts.”
Tax experts have questioned whether the Ensigns are in the clear, saying just because a payment is called a gift does not make it so, and suggesting the paper trail should be investigated.
Ensign’s colleagues failed to rally to his side late last week as Ensign revealed the payments.
Senate Minory Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment when approached by the Sun late Thursday as the Senate was closing for the week, as did other Republican colleagues and leaders.
Ensign said Monday an ethics investigation in the Senate is up to the committee, but he stands by the statement from his attorney that the payments were gifts. “I think the facts speak pretty clearly,” he said.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... eelection/
Fallout from affair, including ethics complaints, leaves him undeterred
Washington — Republican Sen. John Ensign said Monday that not only does he have no intention of resigning in light of his affair and his parents’ payout to the woman’s family, he plans to seek reelection when his term is up in 2012.
Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun he has received calls and e-mails of encouragement from supporters both in Nevada and Washington.
When asked Monday whether he had any thoughts about stepping down, Ensign said his supporters are sending one message: “They say, ‘Don’t.’ ”
“I fully plan on running for reelection,” Ensign said late Monday evening. “I’m going to work to earn their respect back.”
The two-term Republican senator was back on offense Monday, saying his support is coming from his fellow senators as well as those “on both sides” of Senate leadership.
Ensign said his supporters are telling him, “Keep your head up. This thing will pass.”
Discomfort over the Ensign affair escalated last week after the senator disclosed that his parents had paid $96,000 to the family of Cynthia Hampton, the campaign staffer with whom Ensign had the affair.
She and her husband, Doug Hampton, one of the senator’s top aides, had both left the senator’s employment around the time of the payment in April 2008.
The affair has drawn in Ensign’s colleagues, including Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a housemate in the Christian home they share in Washington. Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who recently admitted an affair with an Argentine woman, has said he sought counseling with those from the C Street house.
In a televised interview last week with Sun columnist Jon Ralston, Doug Hampton said Ensign paid his wife more than $25,000 in severance — a sum that raised alarm because it was not reported, as would have been required, on campaign disclosure statements.
Knowingly failing to report such a payment could be a felony violation of campaign finance law, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The organization has filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee and asked the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.
Doug Hampton also said Coburn had suggested a payment to the family, a claim Coburn has strenuously denied. Coburn has said he suggested only that Ensign repair the damage he had done.
Ensign’s father is a wealthy former casino mogul, and his parents structured the payments in a way that allows them to avoid taxes, each providing four members of the Hampton family payments of $12,000 each — the ceiling for gifts.
Ensign’s statement from his lawyer last week insisted the “payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts.”
Tax experts have questioned whether the Ensigns are in the clear, saying just because a payment is called a gift does not make it so, and suggesting the paper trail should be investigated.
Ensign’s colleagues failed to rally to his side late last week as Ensign revealed the payments.
Senate Minory Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment when approached by the Sun late Thursday as the Senate was closing for the week, as did other Republican colleagues and leaders.
Ensign said Monday an ethics investigation in the Senate is up to the committee, but he stands by the statement from his attorney that the payments were gifts. “I think the facts speak pretty clearly,” he said.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... eelection/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:23 pm
Largent says he encouraged Nevada Senator to end affair
WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Rep. Steve Largent said Monday he took part in a confrontation last year to urge Sen. John Ensign to end his affair and compensation to the senator's former mistress was not discussed.
"I think learning of the money situation was a shock to everybody," said Largent, who represented Oklahoma in Congress from 1994 until 2002.
He also said Doug Hampton, a former top aide to Ensign and the husband of the woman who became involved with Nevada senator, was not present at the confrontation organized by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
"I have never talked about it with John (Ensign). Never talked about it with anybody. Wasn't aware that it took place," Largent said of the money reportedly paid to the Hampton family.
Last week an attorney released a statement revealing that Ensign's father and mother in 2008 paid a total of $96,000 to Doug Hampton; his wife, Cynthia, who also served as Ensign's campaign treasurer, and two of the couple's children.
That money was described as a gift unrelated to any campaign or official duty.
In an interview last week with Jon Ralston, a Las Vegas Sun columnist, Doug Hampton said the compensation issue was pushed by the men who confronted Ensign about the affair.
Hampton specifically identified Coburn as one who believed restitution was necessary. Coburn categorically denied Hampton's claims.
Even before the payments to the Hamptons from Ensign's parents were made public, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed a complaint against Ensign.
Largent said the confrontation with Ensign grew out of an understanding among a number of lawmakers who live in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol.
When serving in Congress, Largent also lived there and still participates in the group's weekly dinners and discussions.
"We are all very good friends. He (Ensign) was wandering off the reservation," he explained. "Our feeling is that if anybody does that and does it willfully that we are asking them not to live at C Street anymore."
Largent said each of the men who live in the house has given others "license" to confront each other if "there's something going on that shouldn't be going in someone's life."
Still, he conceded the confrontation with Ensign was unusual.
"In my perspective, particularly in this environment when you are talking about members of Congress, guys in office just don't get confronted that often, particularly by their peers," Largent said.
He said the group who confronted Ensign left unsure of its impact but eventually the meeting produced a "good result."
Largent said the goal was to persuade Ensign to end the affair and allow his family to repair itself.
"It turned out to be very constructive," he said.
Largent also has been involved in counseling Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who also recently admitted to having an affair.
Unlike the others, Sanford never lived in the C Street house but agreed to meet there.
Asked if Ensign and Sanford should resign, Largent described that concern as secondary.
"First of all, my biggest concern is about their personal well being and their families' well being," he said.
"Beyond that, whether they stay in office or not, I think that's a calculation that only they can make."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article. ... 5&allcom=1
WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Rep. Steve Largent said Monday he took part in a confrontation last year to urge Sen. John Ensign to end his affair and compensation to the senator's former mistress was not discussed.
"I think learning of the money situation was a shock to everybody," said Largent, who represented Oklahoma in Congress from 1994 until 2002.
He also said Doug Hampton, a former top aide to Ensign and the husband of the woman who became involved with Nevada senator, was not present at the confrontation organized by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
"I have never talked about it with John (Ensign). Never talked about it with anybody. Wasn't aware that it took place," Largent said of the money reportedly paid to the Hampton family.
Last week an attorney released a statement revealing that Ensign's father and mother in 2008 paid a total of $96,000 to Doug Hampton; his wife, Cynthia, who also served as Ensign's campaign treasurer, and two of the couple's children.
That money was described as a gift unrelated to any campaign or official duty.
In an interview last week with Jon Ralston, a Las Vegas Sun columnist, Doug Hampton said the compensation issue was pushed by the men who confronted Ensign about the affair.
Hampton specifically identified Coburn as one who believed restitution was necessary. Coburn categorically denied Hampton's claims.
Even before the payments to the Hamptons from Ensign's parents were made public, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed a complaint against Ensign.
Largent said the confrontation with Ensign grew out of an understanding among a number of lawmakers who live in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol.
When serving in Congress, Largent also lived there and still participates in the group's weekly dinners and discussions.
"We are all very good friends. He (Ensign) was wandering off the reservation," he explained. "Our feeling is that if anybody does that and does it willfully that we are asking them not to live at C Street anymore."
Largent said each of the men who live in the house has given others "license" to confront each other if "there's something going on that shouldn't be going in someone's life."
Still, he conceded the confrontation with Ensign was unusual.
"In my perspective, particularly in this environment when you are talking about members of Congress, guys in office just don't get confronted that often, particularly by their peers," Largent said.
He said the group who confronted Ensign left unsure of its impact but eventually the meeting produced a "good result."
Largent said the goal was to persuade Ensign to end the affair and allow his family to repair itself.
"It turned out to be very constructive," he said.
Largent also has been involved in counseling Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who also recently admitted to having an affair.
Unlike the others, Sanford never lived in the C Street house but agreed to meet there.
Asked if Ensign and Sanford should resign, Largent described that concern as secondary.
"First of all, my biggest concern is about their personal well being and their families' well being," he said.
"Beyond that, whether they stay in office or not, I think that's a calculation that only they can make."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article. ... 5&allcom=1
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:39 pm
In D.C., some worry Ensign saga is not over
Reid and McConnell, meanwhile, stop short of showing public support
Washington — The story of Republican Sen. John Ensign’s affair has entered an uneasy space in the Capitol, as the shock over the revelation that his parents paid the woman’s family has subsided, but colleagues and supporters remain nervous that the story is not over.
Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun this week that he plans to remain in office and to seek reelection in 2012, suggesting that his peers and Senate leaders on both sides of the political aisle have encouraged him to stand tall.
Yet when asked Tuesday whether he would support those efforts, the Senate’s Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, again declined to throw his support to the one-time member of his leadership team.
“I think Sen. Ensign will have to speak to those issues himself,” McConnell said when asked by the Sun. It was the second time in less than a week that McConnell had sidestepped such questions.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has spoken to Ensign, but his spokesman said Reid believes “this is Ensign’s own personal decision to make.” The two senators have an agreement not to criticize each other publicly.
At a dinner meeting of Republican Party activists in Las Vegas this week, no member of the party’s central committee called for a formal rebuke or censure of Ensign.
The party has a shallow bench in Nevada, and Ensign has long been the most popular elected official in the state. He might ride out the scandal much the way Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana has been able to prepare for his reelection in 2010 just a short time after the conservative lawmaker admitted having visited a prostitute.
That is, unless the Ensign story continues.
“There’s a nervousness that maybe the full story has not been told,” said a Republican strategist from Nevada. “Most people think there’s another shoe to drop.”
Another Nevada Republican said “people are just anxious for it to be over.”
Ensign appeared more confident this week, emboldened, as he stepped off the Senate floor into the busy main foyer, rather than slipping out side exits as he had done when he first went public with his affair.
On Tuesday, Ensign, with his youngest son in tow, stopped briefly to chat with reporters and sign the cast of one, engaging in upbeat banter before heading into his party’s weekly policy lunch.
Ensign disclosed last week that his parents paid $96,000 to the family of the woman, Cynthia Hampton, around the time she and her husband, Doug Hampton, stopped working for him in April 2008.
Cynthia Hampton had been the senator’s campaign treasurer and Doug Hampton had been one of Ensign’s top aides.
Yet questions remain, including whether investigations into the payments and the circumstances surrounding the woman’s departure from the senator’s staff will be under way.
An ethics group in Washington has filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee, and asked for a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington raises questions about possible sexual harassment in the woman’s departure and alleges a potential felony violation of campaign finance law if Ensign paid the woman a severance, as her husband claims, but failed to report it as would be required under campaign finance law.
Ensign has insisted the payments from his parents to the woman, her husband and two of their three children were given and accepted as gifts.
New details also could arise if Cynthia Hampton breaks her silence and speaks out about the affair, or if the Hamptons file a lawsuit, which they apparently are considering.
On Tuesday, more information emerged about the confrontation between Ensign and his peers during which they sought to put an end to the affair. The meeting took place at the Christian group residence he shares on Capitol Hill.
Former Republican Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma told the Tulsa World that he and the others intervened because Ensign was “wandering off the reservation.”
Largent said that although the men at the residence help to keep one another in line, the direct confrontation of a lawmaker was unusual.
“In my perspective, particularly in this environment when you are talking about members of Congress, guys in office just don’t get confronted that often, particularly by their peers,” Largent said.
Largent said the goal was to persuade Ensign to end the affair and allow his family to repair itself. The paper reported that Largent said the group left unsure of its effect on Ensign, but that eventually the meeting produced a “good result.”
The former NFL star said Doug Hampton was not present for the confrontation and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who arranged the meeting, did not suggest any payment as restitution to the family, as Doug Hampton claimed in a TV interview last week with Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.
“I think learning of the money situation was a shock to everybody,” Largent told the paper, referring to the $96,000 payment.
Coburn has confirmed he was at the February 2008 intervention, but strongly denied he suggested a payment, saying he counseled Ensign to end the affair and repair the damage.
Largent no longer lives at the C Street house but remains close to his colleagues, attending weekly dinner and counseling sessions, he told the paper. The conservative Republican served in Congress from 1994 to 2002.
Ensign has been among the harsher critics of other lawmakers who have had affairs, calling on President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal and more recently trying to push out former Sen. Larry Craig, the Republican who declined to seek reelection in Idaho after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after his arrest on charges that he sought sex from a plainclothes police officer in a men’s room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... -not-over/
Reid and McConnell, meanwhile, stop short of showing public support
Washington — The story of Republican Sen. John Ensign’s affair has entered an uneasy space in the Capitol, as the shock over the revelation that his parents paid the woman’s family has subsided, but colleagues and supporters remain nervous that the story is not over.
Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun this week that he plans to remain in office and to seek reelection in 2012, suggesting that his peers and Senate leaders on both sides of the political aisle have encouraged him to stand tall.
Yet when asked Tuesday whether he would support those efforts, the Senate’s Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, again declined to throw his support to the one-time member of his leadership team.
“I think Sen. Ensign will have to speak to those issues himself,” McConnell said when asked by the Sun. It was the second time in less than a week that McConnell had sidestepped such questions.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has spoken to Ensign, but his spokesman said Reid believes “this is Ensign’s own personal decision to make.” The two senators have an agreement not to criticize each other publicly.
At a dinner meeting of Republican Party activists in Las Vegas this week, no member of the party’s central committee called for a formal rebuke or censure of Ensign.
The party has a shallow bench in Nevada, and Ensign has long been the most popular elected official in the state. He might ride out the scandal much the way Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana has been able to prepare for his reelection in 2010 just a short time after the conservative lawmaker admitted having visited a prostitute.
That is, unless the Ensign story continues.
“There’s a nervousness that maybe the full story has not been told,” said a Republican strategist from Nevada. “Most people think there’s another shoe to drop.”
Another Nevada Republican said “people are just anxious for it to be over.”
Ensign appeared more confident this week, emboldened, as he stepped off the Senate floor into the busy main foyer, rather than slipping out side exits as he had done when he first went public with his affair.
On Tuesday, Ensign, with his youngest son in tow, stopped briefly to chat with reporters and sign the cast of one, engaging in upbeat banter before heading into his party’s weekly policy lunch.
Ensign disclosed last week that his parents paid $96,000 to the family of the woman, Cynthia Hampton, around the time she and her husband, Doug Hampton, stopped working for him in April 2008.
Cynthia Hampton had been the senator’s campaign treasurer and Doug Hampton had been one of Ensign’s top aides.
Yet questions remain, including whether investigations into the payments and the circumstances surrounding the woman’s departure from the senator’s staff will be under way.
An ethics group in Washington has filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee, and asked for a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington raises questions about possible sexual harassment in the woman’s departure and alleges a potential felony violation of campaign finance law if Ensign paid the woman a severance, as her husband claims, but failed to report it as would be required under campaign finance law.
Ensign has insisted the payments from his parents to the woman, her husband and two of their three children were given and accepted as gifts.
New details also could arise if Cynthia Hampton breaks her silence and speaks out about the affair, or if the Hamptons file a lawsuit, which they apparently are considering.
On Tuesday, more information emerged about the confrontation between Ensign and his peers during which they sought to put an end to the affair. The meeting took place at the Christian group residence he shares on Capitol Hill.
Former Republican Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma told the Tulsa World that he and the others intervened because Ensign was “wandering off the reservation.”
Largent said that although the men at the residence help to keep one another in line, the direct confrontation of a lawmaker was unusual.
“In my perspective, particularly in this environment when you are talking about members of Congress, guys in office just don’t get confronted that often, particularly by their peers,” Largent said.
Largent said the goal was to persuade Ensign to end the affair and allow his family to repair itself. The paper reported that Largent said the group left unsure of its effect on Ensign, but that eventually the meeting produced a “good result.”
The former NFL star said Doug Hampton was not present for the confrontation and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who arranged the meeting, did not suggest any payment as restitution to the family, as Doug Hampton claimed in a TV interview last week with Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.
“I think learning of the money situation was a shock to everybody,” Largent told the paper, referring to the $96,000 payment.
Coburn has confirmed he was at the February 2008 intervention, but strongly denied he suggested a payment, saying he counseled Ensign to end the affair and repair the damage.
Largent no longer lives at the C Street house but remains close to his colleagues, attending weekly dinner and counseling sessions, he told the paper. The conservative Republican served in Congress from 1994 to 2002.
Ensign has been among the harsher critics of other lawmakers who have had affairs, calling on President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal and more recently trying to push out former Sen. Larry Craig, the Republican who declined to seek reelection in Idaho after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after his arrest on charges that he sought sex from a plainclothes police officer in a men’s room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... -not-over/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:33 pm
Ethics group amends Ensign complaint over $96,000 payment
Republican Sen. John Ensign’s parents were added Friday to a complaint before the Federal Election Commission suggesting they violated campaign finance law by paying $96,000 to the family of the woman with whom he was having an affair.
The latest filing by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington comes as the senator’s office continues to insist the payments to the family of Cynthia Hampton were gifts, not severance to the former campaign aide, as the woman’s husband claims.
The distinction is important. In a televised interview last week the husband, Doug Hampton, who also worked for the senator as a top aide, said his wife was paid severance in excess of $25,000.
If the payments were severance, the senator may have committed a felony violation of campaign finance law by failing to disclose them as required.
The problem intensified this week when news outlets, including MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” picked up on a statement from the Ensign camp to The Washington Post.
Ensign’s office had been calling various outlets to clarify that the two payments were the same — the $96,000 payment from the parents included the one in excess of $25,000 that Doug Hampton had referred to during his TV interview with Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.
From the effort to clear up news reports that added the two payments together, further confusion emerged.
The Washington Post issued a correction that said the senator’s office “says that the alleged $25,000-plus severance payment to the Hamptons that some critics had questioned is part of the generous $96,000 gift Ensign’s parents decided to give the Hamptons.”
Maddow and others latched onto the word “severance” in that sentence as an admission by Ensign that the payment was in fact severance.
When contacted Friday, Ensign’s office said the wording by the news organization was incorrect, and the intent of the statement was to explain that the total gift was $96,000.
Ensign’s office repeated the statement by the senator’s attorney that the $96,000 was “made as gifts, accepted as gifts.”
The senator’s attorney has said the $96,000 payment was a single check but was to be considered as eight separate $12,000 payments from each parent to Cynthia Hampton, Doug Hampton and two of their three children.
Limiting each payment to $12,000 shields the Ensign parents from taxes, as that was the ceiling to avoid gift taxes in the 2008 tax year.
The Hamptons have not disputed that the $96,000 includes the $25,000 payment. Doug Hampton’s attorney declined to comment.
The severance versus gift debate underlies the watchdog group’s complaint to the Federal Election Commission. If the payment was severance, it would need to be reported as an in-kind contribution to the committees where Cynthia Hampton worked. No such disclosure was made.
Knowingly failing to report a payment of $25,000 or more could be a felony. The watchdog organization, known as CREW, has also sought investigations by the Senate Ethics Committee and Justice Department.
Tax experts have told the Sun that calling the payment a gift would not necessarily make it so, and that the parties would need to provide contemporaneous evidence to prove the case — perhaps a written or oral agreement, or third party witness.
Also, for the Hamptons to avoid paying income taxes on the gift, they would have to show that it was given with “detached and disinterested generosity.”
CREW on Friday amended its request for a Federal Election Commission investigation to include the senator’s parents, Michael and Sharon Ensign. The couple may have violated campaign finance law by giving beyond the legal limit for contributions, the letter said.
CREW said the maximum the parents would have been able to contribute to the senator’s personal campaign committee, Ensign for Senate, is $9,600 this election cycle — $2,400 from each of them for both the primary and general elections.
Additionally, the maximum the parents could have contributed to the senator’s leadership Political Action Committee, the Battle Born PAC, is $10,000 for the year — that is, $5,000 each.
“Accordingly, there is no way Michael and Sharon Ensign could have both made $12,000 severance payments to Cynthia Hampton without violating the dollar limits,” according to the CREW filing.
CREW said the maximum civil penalty would be a $10,000 fine or double the amount above the allowed contribution.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... -96000-pa/
Republican Sen. John Ensign’s parents were added Friday to a complaint before the Federal Election Commission suggesting they violated campaign finance law by paying $96,000 to the family of the woman with whom he was having an affair.
The latest filing by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington comes as the senator’s office continues to insist the payments to the family of Cynthia Hampton were gifts, not severance to the former campaign aide, as the woman’s husband claims.
The distinction is important. In a televised interview last week the husband, Doug Hampton, who also worked for the senator as a top aide, said his wife was paid severance in excess of $25,000.
If the payments were severance, the senator may have committed a felony violation of campaign finance law by failing to disclose them as required.
The problem intensified this week when news outlets, including MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” picked up on a statement from the Ensign camp to The Washington Post.
Ensign’s office had been calling various outlets to clarify that the two payments were the same — the $96,000 payment from the parents included the one in excess of $25,000 that Doug Hampton had referred to during his TV interview with Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.
From the effort to clear up news reports that added the two payments together, further confusion emerged.
The Washington Post issued a correction that said the senator’s office “says that the alleged $25,000-plus severance payment to the Hamptons that some critics had questioned is part of the generous $96,000 gift Ensign’s parents decided to give the Hamptons.”
Maddow and others latched onto the word “severance” in that sentence as an admission by Ensign that the payment was in fact severance.
When contacted Friday, Ensign’s office said the wording by the news organization was incorrect, and the intent of the statement was to explain that the total gift was $96,000.
Ensign’s office repeated the statement by the senator’s attorney that the $96,000 was “made as gifts, accepted as gifts.”
The senator’s attorney has said the $96,000 payment was a single check but was to be considered as eight separate $12,000 payments from each parent to Cynthia Hampton, Doug Hampton and two of their three children.
Limiting each payment to $12,000 shields the Ensign parents from taxes, as that was the ceiling to avoid gift taxes in the 2008 tax year.
The Hamptons have not disputed that the $96,000 includes the $25,000 payment. Doug Hampton’s attorney declined to comment.
The severance versus gift debate underlies the watchdog group’s complaint to the Federal Election Commission. If the payment was severance, it would need to be reported as an in-kind contribution to the committees where Cynthia Hampton worked. No such disclosure was made.
Knowingly failing to report a payment of $25,000 or more could be a felony. The watchdog organization, known as CREW, has also sought investigations by the Senate Ethics Committee and Justice Department.
Tax experts have told the Sun that calling the payment a gift would not necessarily make it so, and that the parties would need to provide contemporaneous evidence to prove the case — perhaps a written or oral agreement, or third party witness.
Also, for the Hamptons to avoid paying income taxes on the gift, they would have to show that it was given with “detached and disinterested generosity.”
CREW on Friday amended its request for a Federal Election Commission investigation to include the senator’s parents, Michael and Sharon Ensign. The couple may have violated campaign finance law by giving beyond the legal limit for contributions, the letter said.
CREW said the maximum the parents would have been able to contribute to the senator’s personal campaign committee, Ensign for Senate, is $9,600 this election cycle — $2,400 from each of them for both the primary and general elections.
Additionally, the maximum the parents could have contributed to the senator’s leadership Political Action Committee, the Battle Born PAC, is $10,000 for the year — that is, $5,000 each.
“Accordingly, there is no way Michael and Sharon Ensign could have both made $12,000 severance payments to Cynthia Hampton without violating the dollar limits,” according to the CREW filing.
CREW said the maximum civil penalty would be a $10,000 fine or double the amount above the allowed contribution.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... -96000-pa/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:14 pm
Justice Department: Ensign complaint should go to FBI
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice has responded to an ethics group’s request for an investigation into Republican Sen. John Ensign’s affair by suggesting the group take its complaint to the FBI.
In a letter to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released today, the Department of Justice said the questions surrounding the payments to the woman’s family are the purview of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“The FBI is the investigative arm of the Department of Justice and will determine whether a federal investigation may be warranted,” said the letter from William Welch, chief of the public integrity section.
“If you believe you have evidence of a violation of federal criminal law, you should provide that information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The ethics group has said Ensign could be in violation of campaign finance law. Ensign’s parents paid the family of the woman, Cynthia Hampton, $96,000 around the time she and her husband stopped working for the senator. She had been his campaign treasurer, and her husband, Doug Hampton, was one of the senator’s top aides.
CREW maintains if the payments were a “severance” to Cynthia Hampton, as her husband claims, then they would need to be reported as an in-kind gift to the committee where she worked. No such payments were disclosed.
Ensign's attorney has maintained the payments were made as gifts to the Hampton family and "accepted as gifts."
Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, forwarded the complaint on Monday to the FBI.
Sloan suggested that the Justice Department's “public integrity section is not eager to prosecute another sitting senator” after criticism over its handling of the prosecution of former Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.
She said because “there is evidence suggesting Sen. Ensign violated a federal criminal law, CREW hopes the FBI will initiate an inquiry.”
The group has also sought investigations before the Senate Ethics Committee and the Federal Elections Commission.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... ld-go-fbi/
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice has responded to an ethics group’s request for an investigation into Republican Sen. John Ensign’s affair by suggesting the group take its complaint to the FBI.
In a letter to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released today, the Department of Justice said the questions surrounding the payments to the woman’s family are the purview of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“The FBI is the investigative arm of the Department of Justice and will determine whether a federal investigation may be warranted,” said the letter from William Welch, chief of the public integrity section.
“If you believe you have evidence of a violation of federal criminal law, you should provide that information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The ethics group has said Ensign could be in violation of campaign finance law. Ensign’s parents paid the family of the woman, Cynthia Hampton, $96,000 around the time she and her husband stopped working for the senator. She had been his campaign treasurer, and her husband, Doug Hampton, was one of the senator’s top aides.
CREW maintains if the payments were a “severance” to Cynthia Hampton, as her husband claims, then they would need to be reported as an in-kind gift to the committee where she worked. No such payments were disclosed.
Ensign's attorney has maintained the payments were made as gifts to the Hampton family and "accepted as gifts."
Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, forwarded the complaint on Monday to the FBI.
Sloan suggested that the Justice Department's “public integrity section is not eager to prosecute another sitting senator” after criticism over its handling of the prosecution of former Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.
She said because “there is evidence suggesting Sen. Ensign violated a federal criminal law, CREW hopes the FBI will initiate an inquiry.”
The group has also sought investigations before the Senate Ethics Committee and the Federal Elections Commission.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/ju ... ld-go-fbi/
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
by gwen » Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:27 pm
Ensign's Chief of Staff Quits
By Rachel Slajda - July 23, 2009, 11:54AM
The chief of staff for Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) is resigning, reports the Las Vegas Sun.
John Lopez has worked with Ensign since the mid-1990s. He was named chief of staff in 2006, replacing Scott Bensing.
But, as TPMmuckraker reported last month, Lopez had to split his chief of staff duties with Doug Hampton -- the husband of Ensign's mistress, Cynthia Hampton, who was also a former Ensign staffer. A source familiar with the situation told us that Lopez was less than pleased with the arrangement, which had him handling political and legislative work and Hampton running the Washington office and staff.
Lopez was also unhappy about Hampton's religious ties to Ensign, the source said, and many aides felt Hampton was unqualified for the position. The attitude among the more secular staffers was, "Hey, this is the boss's religious buddy. We're not gonna bitch about him, but we don't really like him," the source said.
Ensign's office has not yet confirmed Lopez's departure.
Lopez is known by Republicans as a "talented staffer," according to the Sun. We wonder if he's cutting ties with the embattled senator in order to keep his own political career intact.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... hp?ref=fpb
By Rachel Slajda - July 23, 2009, 11:54AM
The chief of staff for Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) is resigning, reports the Las Vegas Sun.
John Lopez has worked with Ensign since the mid-1990s. He was named chief of staff in 2006, replacing Scott Bensing.
But, as TPMmuckraker reported last month, Lopez had to split his chief of staff duties with Doug Hampton -- the husband of Ensign's mistress, Cynthia Hampton, who was also a former Ensign staffer. A source familiar with the situation told us that Lopez was less than pleased with the arrangement, which had him handling political and legislative work and Hampton running the Washington office and staff.
Lopez was also unhappy about Hampton's religious ties to Ensign, the source said, and many aides felt Hampton was unqualified for the position. The attitude among the more secular staffers was, "Hey, this is the boss's religious buddy. We're not gonna bitch about him, but we don't really like him," the source said.
Ensign's office has not yet confirmed Lopez's departure.
Lopez is known by Republicans as a "talented staffer," according to the Sun. We wonder if he's cutting ties with the embattled senator in order to keep his own political career intact.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... hp?ref=fpb
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gwen - AKA Gagal_05
- Posts: 29597
- Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:42 pm
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