CNN Breaking: Ensign used campaign money to pay off mistress

[grantcart]

Source: CNN


CNN - Rick Sanchez 13:00 PDT is reporting that Ensign used $ 25,000 of campaign money to pay a severance package to his mistress in addition to $ 96,000 of his personal money.


Sanchez openly wondered if that was a legal violation of campaign law and whether or not it could in his stepping down.

No link yet.

---

This story just got 'legs'.


Follow the money.

[Pirate Smile]

1. I read that the $96K was Daddy's money.

[Cha]

2. And, CW thought Ensign's affaire

was water under the bridge .what with Sanford and palin grabbing the headlines.

[Pirate Smile]

5. Sanford needs to do another interview. Come on! Do it!

[Cha]

8. palin needs to hold another blathering presser for

the mediawhores to suck up.

[No Elephants]

18. I enjoy it more when these things are spaced out a bit, so that the media beats

every little factoid and speculation to death before the next wave hits.

More bang for the buck.

Er, well, you know what I mean.

[ORDagnabbit]

3. where theres a republican theres a crook n/t

[nc4bo]

4. Oh-oh.

SMDH.

[KatyaR]

6. Legs--hell,

it just grew TENTACLES . . . .

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. Really? His attorney just issued a statement to the contrary

From NBC's Mark Murray
Earlier today, we mentioned how the John Ensign story was getting stranger. Now an attorney for the 51-year-old Nevada senator has admitted that his parents paid Cindy Hampton (the campaign staffer he had his affair with), Doug Hampton (her husband, who had also worked for Ensign), and their children a total of $96,000.

Here's the statement from Ensign attorney Paul Coggins:


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

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

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

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/07/09/19914...

And then there's this:

Sen. Ensign’s Parents Gave $96,000 to Hampton Family

An attorney for Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign revealed Thursday that the senator’s parents paid $96,000 to a woman the senator admitted he had an extramarital affair with in 2008.

The disclosure comes as renewed focus is placed on Ensign’s affair with Cindy Hampton, a former campaign aide. The senator revealed the affair on June 16.

The woman’s husband, Doug Hampton, gave an interview this week to the Las Vegas Sun offering details of the affair and discussed payments made to his wife by the senator. In response, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an ethics watchdog, today called on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the payments.

CREW has also asked the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics panel to investigate the payments made to Hampton.

In a statement today, Ensign attorney Paul Coggins said the senator’s parents made four $12,000 payments to Cindy and Doug Hampton and to two of their children.

“The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts,” Coggins said. Ensign’s parents agreed to make the payments “out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time,” Coggins said, adding that the “gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/07/09/sen-ensigns-pa... /

[xultar]

11. The lawyers statement only speaks to the 96k and not to the 25k severance.

Which is what this post is about.

[atreides1]

13. New Math?

I must be missing something. 4 X 12 = 48

[SFnomad]

23. New Math?

I'd guess $48K to each of them, totalling $96K.

[Bette Noir]

35. To the parents and the children.

[lindisfarne]

15. Yea right."parents decided to make gifts out of concern for well-being of long-time family friends

Is this how we're characterizing bribes these days?

[Bette Noir]

37. Not a bribe. Hush money.

[LovableScamp]

19. how many times did they give these 'gifts'? It doesnt add up to 96 k at 12 k amongst 4 people

I must've missed something

[No Elephants]

21. Calling the IRS, calling the IRS.

[Bette Noir]

36. Four people. Four payments.

If it doesn't add up, credit sloppy reporting.

[BR_Parkway]

22. Did they pay 2 years in a row? Wow, have to think the wife is loving

her in-laws these days

[grantcart]

29. Here is the CNN ticker report which combines the two stories

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/09/stateme...

[aquart]

42. "a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons"

What else did they give them? This sentence says there is MORE.

[daleo]

45. gift=hush money. n/t

[Soylent Brice]

9. YAY!!

[SkyDaddy7]

10. Could the Dems get number 61??

[maddogesq]

16. I doubt it in the short term. NV governor is a Gooper. (Gibbons)

I am assuming Nevada law appoints senators the same way other states do. However, if Ensign goes down in flames, the next election could be better for the Dems.

[edbermac]

12. $25 grand for some poon? Back it my day it was $20.

Damn inflation.

[Dappleganger]

14. When will these dumbasses learn...

that hookers are cheaper--just ask Vitter!

[lindisfarne]

17. Recharacterizing a "bribe" as a "gift". Well, that should allow one to avoid all the anti-bribery

statutes.

Family values at its best - the whole family gets in on the bribery.

[No Elephants]

20. Is "hush money" the same a s a bribe?

It's kind of repugnant that a grown man involved his parents in that.

[lindisfarne]

24. Not to mention the children of the woman he had the affair with .n/t

[Kber]

41. Hush money is blackmail

bribes are funds paid to gain access, influnece, contracts, etc.

I think given the circumstances, someone should publish a corruption glossary of terms, don't you? >

[lindisfarne]

26. An "anonymous" source is calling "gifts" "restitution"

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/09/senator-wont-den...

[Beavker]

25. Spitzer was only helping Ashley Dupre in her time of need.

Not paying for sex. Duh! Free Spitzer!

[dysfunctional press]

27. "a legal violation of campaign law"

if it were legal, how could it be a violation?

[grantcart]

31. That's Sanchez for you

Actually my proof reading sucks

[RobertSeattle]

28. After what John Stewart said, if I were a celebrity I'd be scared...

[grantcart]

30. Now have link at CNN.com

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/09/stateme...

[crickets]

32. Oopsie! -nt

[mod mom]

33. I want to know if $ from the "fellowship" was used. They are listed as tax exempt

A New Divinely Ordained President: The Hand of God or the Silence of the Press?
Posted March 26, 2008 | 10:39 AM (EST)

Imagine a presidential candidate who believed that God wanted him to run for president because American needed him. Picture a secretive group of Washington insiders who meet quietly to mix religion, class and politics and who believe in an elite group of people divinely ordained to run the country and the world. Now envision this group meeting in sex-segregated cells to discuss how God has chosen them to fulfill their roles in public life. And, at the helm of this group, picture a figure described by an admirer as a "guy in the smoky back room" who "sits in the corner, and you see the cigar, and you see the flame, and you hear his voice -- but you never see his face" whose followers have made "a fetish of being invisible." Now imagine that a few of the members of this group outside of the U.S. have included "General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators."

For those of you who think you're reading about George W. Bush and his administration, you'd be mistaken, though members of the Bush administration do belong to the sect described. The presidential candidate is Hillary Clinton, and the group is "The Foundation" also known as "The Family." Its leader is Doug Coe, a man described by Clinton as "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God." Yes, it's true, according to Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet who published an article in Mother Jones magazine in September 2007 about Hillary Clinton's deepening ties to the group.


According to Mother Jones, Clinton has been meeting regularly with The Foundation's women's bible study groups since 1993 and moving up through its ranks. Clinton herself has written in Living History about Coe and her first encounter with him at The Foundation's estate and how deeply he impressed her. According to one of Mother Jones' sources, a Coe supporter, Clinton "has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance." The article goes on to report that "These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast." But, despite the words she has written about Coe and the reports of her deepening involvement with the Fellowship, Clinton has refused requests by the press for interviews about Coe and her membership in The Fellowship. But clearly, she is not as scrupulous about her association with religious figures in her life as she claimed when attacking Barack Obama for remaining in Pastor Jeremiah Wright's congregation.

Others who have been involved with the group have broken the code of silence. Sharlet himself went to live with one of the cells of The Foundation and describes the inner workings and ideology of the organization in an article that appeared in Harper's magazine in March of 2003. He writes that The Family is "in its own words, an "invisible" association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N. Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as "members," as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities." Is this why Hillary Clinton has refused requests for interviews about her association with The Family?

-snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-gans/a-new-divinely-...

[AKing]

34. What's the only thing better than a GOP Sex Scandal?

A cover up that starts to unravel!

[David Zephyr]

38. Another judgemental, gay-bashing, christian hypocrite

Jesus is OK, it's his fan club I can't stand.

[sasquatch]

39. Have fun in the federal pen Ensign

[Botany]

40. Well he was a "Promise Keeper"

You stay quite and I'll promise to pay you.

[kestrel91316]

43. I wanna go visit John in prison. After his wife divorces him, he's gonna

need a new woman in his life.

Think about it. I could set him up for ANOTHER fall.

[Wednesdays]

44. K&R

[mzmolly]

46. "Moran!"

Wondered if it's a violation of campaign law?

[Myrina]

47. Did the recipients pay TAXES on their GIFT$???

C'mon IRS, Inquiring minds want to know when the audit starts ....