FBI begins preliminary criminal investigation against John Ensign

[babylonsister]

As usual, apologies for the source.

FBI gets involved in John Ensign affair


By MANU RAJU & JOHN BRESNAHAN | 1/19/10 10:46 AM EST


The Justice Department and the FBI have begun what appears to be a preliminary criminal investigation into events surrounding Sen. John Ensign’s affair with a staffer, sources tell POLITICO.

In recent days, FBI agents have contacted former aides to the Nevada Republican in Washington and Las Vegas, said several sources familiar with the matter. The sources also said that a Justice Department prosecutor has been assigned to the case but has not yet convened a grand jury.

“Yes, the FBI has contacted witnesses — in this case, former aides,” said one source familiar with the matter. “We’ll see where it leads.”

Ensign announced last summer that he had carried on a nine-month affair with campaign aide Cynthia Hampton, herself the spouse of Doug Hampton, a top Senate aide of Ensign. Since admitting to the affair, Ensign has been the subject of a series of damaging revelations about his conduct — including the fact that his parents paid the Hamptons $96,000 after the couple left their jobs with the senator.

The Senate Ethics Committee is already investigating; it issued its own subpoenas for former Ensign aides last month. But a criminal investigation raises the stakes and, whatever its outcome, could take long enough that it would hurt Ensign’s chances of winning a third term in 2012.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31652.html