Post by MacBeth on May 12, 2011 14:52:35 GMT -5
The Senate ethics committee released a report Thursday alleging that Sen. John Ensign and others violated several federal laws while trying to cover up the sex scandal that ended his Senate career.
In letters to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Federal Election Commission, the ethics panel says Ensign made false statements to the Federal Election Commission, violated campaign finance laws and obstructed the ethics committee’s inquiry. He is also accused of “aiding and abetting” an effort by a former employee to violate lobbying restrictions.
In an extraordinary Senate floor session, Ethics Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) laid out the case against Ensign, revealing more serious legal allegations than expected.
Boxer said the charges were substantial enough to “warrant consideration of expulsion” for Ensign. Ensign chose to resign last week rather than face this possibility.
The final details of the ethics case come two years after he revealed that he had an extramarital affair with a former campaign aide, Cynthia Hampton. Ensign has been replaced by former Rep. Dean Heller.
It’s a rare move by the top ethics committee senators has shed new light into a scandal that toppled a one-time rising GOP star who had been toying with a 2012 presidential run.
The Justice Department informed Ensign’s lawyers that it would not pursue the one-time senator, who tried to help the lobbying career of Hampton’s husband Doug, a former top Ensign aide himself, but the ethics committee’s new revelations may change that calculation. Hampton himself was indicted in March for lobbying Ensign and his staff on behalf of a Las Vegas airlines and an energy firm - in an alleged violation of a federally required cooling off period for former aides.
Despite Ensign’s resignation, the ethics committee is moving ahead with a case where they have hired a special prosecutor to investigate the findings. Ensign feared that the panel was poised to move ahead with public hearings.
The panel’s decision to move ahead with the case was a major part of the reason Ensign abruptly decided to cut short his second term in the Senate.
“While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings,” Ensign said in the statement. “For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great.”
After his resignation announcement, Boxer and Isakson issued an unusual statement saying the panel “has worked diligently for 22 months on this matter and will complete its work in a timely fashion. Senator Ensign has made the appropriate decision.”
The decision to come to the floor signals that the case has become the most serious investigation the panel has dealt with in years. While Ensign can no longer be punished by the panel because he’s not in the Senate, any criminal wrongdoing found by the committee can be referred to federal prosecutors - and the panel can issue a report laying out embarrassing details of the scandal.
The nine-month affair between Hampton and Ensign ended in August 2008, about three months after the couple left Ensign’s office. Immediately after they left, Ensign’s parents cut the Hamptons a $96,000 check - which the senator described as a gift.
But damaging information kept coming out, mostly because Doug Hampton charged in national media interviews what he described as a scheme between the two men to flout federal lobbying laws so Ensign could keep the affair quiet while helping Hampton’s new career. Ensign adamantly denied the charges.
In fact, it was Hampton’s desire to publicize the affair ultimately provoked the senator to go public with the scandal in a June 2009 press conference in Las Vegas.
Shunned by his colleagues, Ensign gave up a plum position as No. 4 in the GOP leadership and gave up any hope of running for president. Instead, he simply tried to weather the storm, hoping to resurrect his career by the time his 2012 Senate reelection came around.
But abandoned by his party and feeling pressure from the ethics committee, Ensign announced in early March that he wouldn’t run for reelection. But it wasn’t until late April that he announced he would resign from office, which happened to be a day before he was scheduled to secretly be deposed by the ethics committee.
www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54841.html
In letters to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Federal Election Commission, the ethics panel says Ensign made false statements to the Federal Election Commission, violated campaign finance laws and obstructed the ethics committee’s inquiry. He is also accused of “aiding and abetting” an effort by a former employee to violate lobbying restrictions.
In an extraordinary Senate floor session, Ethics Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) laid out the case against Ensign, revealing more serious legal allegations than expected.
Boxer said the charges were substantial enough to “warrant consideration of expulsion” for Ensign. Ensign chose to resign last week rather than face this possibility.
The final details of the ethics case come two years after he revealed that he had an extramarital affair with a former campaign aide, Cynthia Hampton. Ensign has been replaced by former Rep. Dean Heller.
It’s a rare move by the top ethics committee senators has shed new light into a scandal that toppled a one-time rising GOP star who had been toying with a 2012 presidential run.
The Justice Department informed Ensign’s lawyers that it would not pursue the one-time senator, who tried to help the lobbying career of Hampton’s husband Doug, a former top Ensign aide himself, but the ethics committee’s new revelations may change that calculation. Hampton himself was indicted in March for lobbying Ensign and his staff on behalf of a Las Vegas airlines and an energy firm - in an alleged violation of a federally required cooling off period for former aides.
Despite Ensign’s resignation, the ethics committee is moving ahead with a case where they have hired a special prosecutor to investigate the findings. Ensign feared that the panel was poised to move ahead with public hearings.
The panel’s decision to move ahead with the case was a major part of the reason Ensign abruptly decided to cut short his second term in the Senate.
“While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings,” Ensign said in the statement. “For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great.”
After his resignation announcement, Boxer and Isakson issued an unusual statement saying the panel “has worked diligently for 22 months on this matter and will complete its work in a timely fashion. Senator Ensign has made the appropriate decision.”
The decision to come to the floor signals that the case has become the most serious investigation the panel has dealt with in years. While Ensign can no longer be punished by the panel because he’s not in the Senate, any criminal wrongdoing found by the committee can be referred to federal prosecutors - and the panel can issue a report laying out embarrassing details of the scandal.
The nine-month affair between Hampton and Ensign ended in August 2008, about three months after the couple left Ensign’s office. Immediately after they left, Ensign’s parents cut the Hamptons a $96,000 check - which the senator described as a gift.
But damaging information kept coming out, mostly because Doug Hampton charged in national media interviews what he described as a scheme between the two men to flout federal lobbying laws so Ensign could keep the affair quiet while helping Hampton’s new career. Ensign adamantly denied the charges.
In fact, it was Hampton’s desire to publicize the affair ultimately provoked the senator to go public with the scandal in a June 2009 press conference in Las Vegas.
Shunned by his colleagues, Ensign gave up a plum position as No. 4 in the GOP leadership and gave up any hope of running for president. Instead, he simply tried to weather the storm, hoping to resurrect his career by the time his 2012 Senate reelection came around.
But abandoned by his party and feeling pressure from the ethics committee, Ensign announced in early March that he wouldn’t run for reelection. But it wasn’t until late April that he announced he would resign from office, which happened to be a day before he was scheduled to secretly be deposed by the ethics committee.
www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54841.html