Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ethics group amends John Ensign complaints

Updated Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009 | 11:46 a.m.

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John Ensign

WASHINGTON -- An ethics group today filed supplemental complaints over Republican Sen. John Ensign’s actions in securing employment for the husband of the former staffer with whom he was having an affair, and also asked that fellow Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma be investigated for his role.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington amended complaints it had previously filed with both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Senate Ethics Committee after new questions about the senators’ actions were raised by last week’s New York Times story.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today that “Sen. Ensign should be investigated by both the FBI and the ethics committee and the committee should also delve into Sen. Coburn’s role in the tawdry affair. The American people deserve to learn the truth about their elected representatives.”

Ensign told the Sun and other reporters today that, "I'm fully planning on working, staying in office.”

Today was the first day most senators were back on the Hill since last week's Times story raised new ethical questions about the senator's actions surrounding his affair.

After Ensign sought employment for Doug Hampton, a former top aide whose wife, also an Ensign staffer, was having an affair with the senator, the paper said Ensign knowingly allowed Hampton to lobby him in violation of the one-year ban on former staffers lobbying Congress.

Several Republican colleagues interviewed declined to offer their support.

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