Possible ethics violations in Ensign affair
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Yes, ok, Nevada Senator John Ensign had an affair with a top aide's wife. When the aide, Douglas Hampton, found out, on top of attempting to pay him off, Ensign tried to helped Hampton get a job with a firm that did political consulting, assisted with getting several donors to be Hampton's clients. Hampton then got Ensign to intervene on said client's behalf with federal agencies. The only problem is that there's a ban on senior aides lobbying the Senate with a year after leaving and by ban, I mean law.
The New York Times has all the juicy details, including examples such as this:
The New York Times has all the juicy details, including examples such as this:
After requests from Mr. Hampton, Mr. Ensign called the secretary of transportation last year to plead the case for a Nevada airline, Allegiant Air, which was under investigation for allegedly overcharging for tickets. In April, he arranged for Mr. Hampton and his clients to meet the new transportation secretary in a successful effort to resolve a dispute with a foreign competitor.
Posted by brandonb at 6:30 PM on October 2nd 2009
The Ethics Committee is reviewing the complaint to see if there's anything to it.