Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ensign case referred to Justice Department

Panel says ex-senator broke federal law

Ensign
Larry Margasak Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Former Sen. John Ensign of Nevada broke federal law, made false statements to the Federal Election Commission and obstructed a Senate Ethics Committee’s investigation into his conduct, the panel said Thursday in a scathing report that sent the matter to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

The former Republican lawmaker “created a web of deceit that entangled and compromised numerous people,” the committee said, adding that it had assembled enough evidence to warrant possible expulsion had Ensign not resigned.

Ensign quit May 3, one day before he was to have testified under oath about an affair with the wife of a top aide, the aide’s subsequent lobbying of Ensign’s office, and a payment from Ensign’s parents to the one-time aide’s family.

The committee asked the FEC to conduct its own investigation, concluding that Ensign made false statements to the agency about the payment to the former aide’s family.

The Senate committee hired former federal prosecutor Carol Elder Bruce to complete its investigation and relied on her findings in making the referrals to the Justice Department and FEC.

“The special counsel is confident that the evidence that would have been presented in an adjudicatory hearing would have been substantial and sufficient to warrant the consideration of the sanction of expulsion,” the report said.

The report added that while “concealment is part of the anatomy of an affair, the concealment conduct … by Sen. Ensign exceeded the normal acts of discretion.”

The Ethics Committee chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told the Senate in a speech: “When Sen. Ensign resigned he said, and I quote, ‘I have not violated any law, rule or standard of conduct.’ I want to go on record … to say how strongly I disagree with that statement.”

The Senate cannot punish someone who is no longer serving, but the referrals ensure that investigations of Ensign will go on for some time. His lawyers had announced last December that the Justice Department was no longer targeting him.

Ensign lawyers Robert Walker and Abbe Lowell said in a statement that the former senator is “confused and disappointed that the committee would consider his case and issue its report without waiting for and considering our submission, which it received yesterday.”