John Ensign's parents paid $96K to his mistress

John Ensign's parents paid $96K to his mistress
By MANU RAJU
Copyright by Politico.com
7/10/09 12:19 PM EDT
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24748.html


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

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

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

The disclosure of the April 2008 payment seemed intended to head off growing questions about whether Ensign violated federal law by failing to report what Doug Hampton called a severance package worth more than $25,000 to his wife Cynthia, who left Ensign's campaign staff on April 30, 2008.

Ensign was not required to report the giving of such gifts, and on Thursday, his attorney went to lengths to point out that the payments were made and "accepted" as gifts from personal accounts rather than as a severance package for their dismissal from his staff. It's unclear whether the Hamptons view the payments as a gift or as severance, and an attorney for the couple wasn't reachable for comment.

The revelations of the payoff came as the scandal - quiet for several weeks - blossomed anew as Doug Hampton, the husband of Ensign's mistress Cynthia, told a Nevada television show this week that Ensign left his family in shambles by relentlessly pursuing his wife, even after writing a February 2008 letter purporting to break off the affair. The nine-month affair ended in August 2008 - some three months after the time both Hamptons left Ensign's staff.

The sex scandal has already cost Ensign his position as the No. 4 Republican in Senate leadership and ended any hope he had of pursuing the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

Hampton said that Coburn and other peers were involved in talks to urge Ensign to pay Hampton for the damage he caused his family - including potentially giving him "millions" of dollars. Coburn has denied the charge.

"This was at the request of Tom Coburn and some people to try and help them manage John," Hampton said Wednesday of the talk about payments, which he said were necessary because Ensign continued to "pursue" his wife and left his family in financial shambles.

"I didn't talk to John Ensign personally at all. Our attorneys did talk. Our attorneys absolutely talked, because Senator Tom Coburn asked and was involved in these negotiations out of good will and good faith," Hampton said earlier in the broadcast.

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

Hampton responded: "Absolutely."

The second-part of the interview airs Thursday night.

Thursday morning, Coburn responded fiercely to Hampton, saying the former aide had misled the press and the public - and he said that any advice that he gave Ensign at the time of the affair was privileged because of his occupation as a physician and an ordained deacon.

"I'm not going to go into that - that's privileged communications. I'm never going to talk about that with anybody. . . I never will, not to a court of law, not to an Ethics Committee, not to anybody - because that is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody."

"He is in error, and he's manipulating the situation and you are all buying it," Coburn said.

Whether Coburn's claim of patient or clerical privacy would hold up in a legal or ethics case is murky, according to several legal experts.

Coburn acknowledged being present during a February 2008 confrontation when Hampton urged Ensign to break off the affair with his wife. But he said he did not take part in pressing Ensign to write the letter to Hampton's wife, as Hampton suggested in his interview, and "categorically denied" being involved in talks about payments to Hampton.

"Dr. Coburn did everything he could to encourage Sen. Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Sen. Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hampton's marriage," Coburn's office said in a statement Wednesday. "Had Sen. Ensign followed Dr. Coburn's advice, this episode would have ended, and been made public, long ago."

But Coburn's office did not respond to an inquiry on why he supported Ensign for chairman of the Republican Policy Committee - the No. 4 position in GOP leadership - right after the 2008 elections even though he knew of the affair. Ten years ago, Coburn criticized Bob Livingston for seeking the position of House speaker without first telling his colleagues that he had an extramarital affair.

But in the immediate cross-hairs is Ensign, who is facing calls from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation and a Justice Department criminal investigation.

Leaders of the Senate Ethics Committee said it was their policy not to discuss possible investigations. Asked if his fellow Nevadan should face an ethics inquiry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday: "I am not answering questions about John Ensign."

Melanie Sloan, head of CREW, said that even if Ensign's camp claims the cash payments were gifts, it does not mean that all parties associated with the transaction agreed that they were gifts. And even if Ensign's parents made the payments, they still must be disclosed on his financial disclosure if they were associated with the Hamptons' work on his staff, according to Sloan.

"Coming up with a new explanation today ... does not deal with your problem from yesterday," Sloan said.

Sloan said that her group is considering filing an ethics complaint against Coburn too if he declines to meet with investigators about his knowledge of the affair.

Ensign's father is a casino mogul, and the senator's lawyer said that his parents "decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time."

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.

"The gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others," the lawyer said.

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