Ensign Defends Payments to Woman He Had Affair With

[malaise]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/06/ensign_defends_payments_to_wom.html?hpid=news-col-blog
<snip>
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) tonight defended payments from his political and taxpayer-funded accounts to the woman he had an eight-month affair with, as well as the salaries of her husband and their 19-year-old son.
According to a memo issued by his office, Ensign's payments to the Hampton family were all above board. In the months during his affair with Cynthia Hampton, treasurer of his political committees, Ensign increased her pay.
When her husband left his legislative payroll, Douglas Hampton received an additional $6,000, according to records with the Federal Election Commission and the Senate.

The Ensign office tonight said the additional payments to Doug Hampton were "equal to 12 days of unused vacation", not a severance package or any other form of payment to his former administrative assistant.

As the Ensigns were separating, Doug and Cindy Hampton left his political and legislative payrolls, according to Ensign's timeline and congressional records.

Ensign's aides tonight also defended the $1,000-a-month salary given to the Hamptons's son, Brandon, who worked last spring and summer as an intern at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a nearly $100 million operation that Ensign chaired in 2007 and 2008.

"He came to D.C. when his high school classes were done, and it was known when he came on that it would be a temporary hire because he was going back to Las Vegas to attend college in the fall of 2008. John Ensign was not consulted as part of the decision to hire Brandon Hampton at the NRSC,"
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Looks like the separation time line is falling apart. What a tangled web we weave...!!!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

[zbdent]

1. wait ... so now he's defending "payments" in what he was trying to paint as

extortion?

:silly:

[malaise]

3. We always knew this was about 'hush money'

:popcorn:

[rurallib]

2. defending paying for sex with the public's money?

This could really get fun.
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: