More Messages Link Senator to Job Effort (Ensign Tried To Steer Work To Husband Of X-Mistress)

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Source: New York Times


More Messages Link Senator to Job Effort
Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, tried to steer lobbying work to the husband of his former mistress, records indicate.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and ERIC LIPTON
Published: March 10, 2010


WASHINGTON — Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign’s efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress and could deepen his legal and political troubles.


Mr. Ensign, Republican of Nevada, suggested that a Las Vegas development firm hire the husband, Douglas Hampton, after it had sought the senator’s help on several energy projects in 2008, according to e-mail messages and interviews with company executives.

The messages are the first written records from Mr. Ensign documenting his efforts to find clients for Mr. Hampton, a top aide and close friend, after the senator had an affair with his wife, Cynthia Hampton. They appear to undercut the senator’s assertion that he did not know the work might involve Congressional lobbying, which could violate a federal ban on such activities by staff members for a year after leaving government.

The e-mail messages also hint at what Mr. Ensign’s office now says was an effort by the Las Vegas firm, a small energy investment business called P2SA Equity, to improperly link Mr. Ensign’s possible assistance to a promised donation.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11inquire.html?pagewanted=all

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