Doug Hampton is a former senior aide to Sen. John Ensign and is married to the woman with whom the senator admitted to having an affair. Leila Navidi
By J. Patrick Coolican, Lisa Mascaro Thursday, July 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Doug Hampton spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about the affair his wife had with Sen. John Ensign, alleging that the Nevada Republican engaged in a lengthy and calculated series of deceptions despite repeated attempts to get him to stop.
Hampton’s comments, his first since Ensign publicly disclosed the affair last month, came during a two-part interview with Sun columnist Jon Ralston on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston.” The first part began airing Wednesday and concludes today. Broadcasts of part two are at 5:30, 6:30 and 8 p.m. today on Cox Cable channel 19.
Hampton’s comments generally followed the allegations he made last month in a letter to Fox News. But the Ralston interview filled in many details and included one allegation that could cause Ensign serious legal problems. Hampton claimed that Ensign paid Cynthia Hampton considerably more than $25,000 in severance when she was told to leave her job with Ensign’s campaign committee in April 2008. Ensign did not report the payment, as required by law, according to a Washington watchdog group.
Beyond the severance claim, Hampton’s account shows Ensign as calculating and relentless in his pursuit of the affair.
Indeed, Hampton confronted Ensign on several occasions, including a scene on Christmas Eve 2007 in which both couples and their children, staying together at the Ensign home in Summerlin, discussed the infidelity, which Hampton said he discovered only the day before.
Despite the confrontation, the affair went on for many months. Ensign has said it lasted until August 2008.
Ensign, heading into a meeting Wednesday afternoon with fellow GOP senators, declined to comment: “I don’t have anything to say.” His office issued a one-sentence release: “In response to today’s television interview, Senator Ensign said Doug Hampton was consistently inaccurate in his statements.”
At the time of the affair, Cynthia Hampton was treasurer of Ensign’s political action committee and reelection campaign; Doug Hampton served as a senior aide on Ensign’s Senate staff. The two families had been close friends for years.
Hampton said that as the affair continued into the winter of 2008, he asked intermediaries to urge Ensign to stop. In February, Hampton said, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and others at the Christian fellowship house where Ensign stays when in Washington confronted Ensign. The Nevada senator responded by writing a note of apology to Cynthia Hampton.
Doug Hampton said Coburn told Ensign he needed to pay off the mortgage on their $1.2 million Las Vegas home and move them to Colorado.
Instead, after sending the note to Cynthia Hampton, who was then in Las Vegas, Ensign flew to Nevada and resumed the affair the next day, Doug Hampton said.
The allegation of the large severance payment is a serious one. If true, Ensign faces a possible felony violation of campaign finance law for failing to report it as an in-kind contribution to the campaign committees where she worked, according to ethics complaints filed against him.
Willfully failing to report a contribution of more than $25,000 is a criminal violation subject to five years in prison, according to complaints filed last month by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Campaign reports show no such in-kind payment from Ensign to either his personal campaign committee or his Battle Born leadership Political Action Committee, according to CREW, which filed complaints June 24 with the Federal Elections Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee.
In the interview, Hampton’s language indicated that a lawsuit is forthcoming.
“You’ll see all of this through this discovery,” he said at one point, using a word — discovery — often used to describe the deposition procedure of a lawsuit, which would involve under-oath testimony.
Hampton indicated that he considers his wife, who has not spoken about the matter publicly, a victim of coercion while she was working for Ensign.
Ensign “uses that as leverage to contact Cindy. She’s trying to get away from John, but he’ll leave messages like, ‘It is about your job; it is a work issue I need to talk about,’” he said.
Aside from potential legal snafus, Ensign faces deepening political problems. Ensign resigned his Senate GOP leadership post last month, and he has clearly alienated at least one Republican colleague. Coburn, a one-time ally who lives with Ensign in Washington, offered a sharply critical statement through a spokesman:
“Dr. Coburn did everything he could to encourage Senator Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Senator Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hamptons’ marriage,” according to the statement. “Had Senator Ensign followed Dr. Coburn’s advice, this episode would have ended, and been made public, long ago.”
Other new details emerged during the Ralston interview. Hampton said the affair began while his family was staying at the Ensign home. Hampton said his family’s house was broken into just before Christmas 2007, at which time the Ensigns invited the Hamptons to stay with them in a nearby Summerlin neighborhood.
The families each have three children and their lives at the time were intertwined. The Hampton children referred to Ensign as an “uncle.” The couples shared a bond of conservative evangelical faith.
Hampton discovered the affair when he saw an incriminating text message, he said. But even after the Christmas Eve discussion involving both families, Hampton told Ralston, Ensign continued to pursue Cynthia Hampton with text messages and phone calls.
Hampton told Ralston that he later alerted Tim and David Coe and Marty Sherman of the Fellowship Foundation, a secretive but powerful Christian group in Washington, which owns the group house where Ensign, Coburn and several other powerful Christian conservatives live. The group confronted Ensign, who responded by writing the note, which a source confirmed to Ralston’s executive producer, Dana Gentry, had been written by the senator.
Despite the confrontation, the affair went on for many months.
The note, dated “Feb. 2008,” is filled with contrition: “I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure not letting thoughts of you, Doug, Brandon, Blake or Brittany come into my mind,” he wrote, referring to her husband and children.
The letter expresses strong religious sentiments, as well. “I walked away from Him and my relationship with Him has suffered terribly. I know He loves me and I know He loves you.”
After Ensign immediately took up with Cynthia Hampton again, Doug Hampton said, he confronted Ensign again, just a day after he had sent the note. Hampton said Ensign replied: “I’m in love with your wife. You can’t work for me anymore.”
Ensign’s wife, Darlene, began watching him closely, Doug Hampton said. He said Ensign then acquired other phones so he could call and text Cynthia Hampton undetected.
Some time later, according to Hampton, Ensign’s wife reached out to top Ensign political aide Mike Slanker, asking him to set up Hampton with political and lobbying work. Hampton told Ralston that Slanker was well aware of the affair.
At the time, Slanker was the top political consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of which Ensign was chairman. The committee’s goal was to elect Republicans that November. The party lost eight seats in the election.
A message left for Slanker by the Sun was not returned. Ralston reported that Slanker has denied knowing about the affair.
Later, Ensign helped Hampton get work at Allegiant Air, whose CEO has given tens of thousands of dollars to Ensign’s campaigns.
Hampton said he tried but failed to extricate himself from the situation, but acknowledged that he had few professional options and so he essentially became party to a cover-up.
He said his attorney has approached Ensign’s attorney because his family has suffered “anger, hurt and pain” and are falling further and further behind financially after losing their jobs. Hampton had been making $160,000 as a senior aide to Ensign.
With respect to the possibly illegal $25,000 severance, Ensign could argue that the payment was a gift, not a severance, which would make it not subject to campaign finance laws, though he would then be subject to IRS rules regarding large gifts.
Or, Ensign could have split the payment into two parts, Sloan said, which would lower the penalty for failure to report to a misdemeanor.
Nevada Republicans were again baffled by the day’s events. “Who is John Ensign?” said a Republican consultant granted anonymity to speak freely. “No one knows him.”
Sun reporter Torey Van Oot contributed to this report.
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Exclusive Interview By Jon Ralston Wed, Jul 8, 2009 (3:50 p.m.) He's been labeled an extortionist and had his story ignored by FOX News. Now, the man whose wife had an affair with U.S. Sen. John Ensign (Nevada-R) is telling his story exclusively on Face to Face. Jon talks with Doug Hampton in the first of a two-part interview. http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/sets/2009/jul/08/exclusive-interview/
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Exclusive Interview, part 2 By Jon Ralston Thu, Jul 9, 2009 (11 a.m.) The man whose wife had an affair with U.S. Sen. John Ensign (Nevada-R) talks about how he was thrown out of Ensign's office. What was he told? What was his wife told, and what about that mysterious severance? Jon asks Doug Hampton about that and more in the second of a two-part interview. http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/sets/2009/jul/09/exclusive-interview-part-2/
Jason Linkins | HuffPost Reporting First Posted: 07-10-09 04:03 PM | Updated: 07-10-09 04:34 PM
For a long while, the inspiring tale of Mark Sanford's Latin American jaunt on or near "the sex line" had gripped America with its romantic melodrama. You can read more about it in the forthcoming Tropic Of Capricorn 2: Buenos Aires Nights, by Henry Miller. But as much as the heart wants more from the Mark Sanford story, like "positions explored" and "quantity of white zinfandel consumed," it's now time for the body to get really interested in this whole John Ensign affair story.
So, the dilly: John Ensign, Nevada Senator, copped to having an affair with Cynthia Hampton, who was for a time on his campaign staff. The television media got all worked up about it, saying things like, "This is bad news for Ensign, one of the GOP's presidential contenders." And people like me replied, "Wait! John Ensign is a presidential contender?" later adding, "Seriously, you can't possibly think this guy was ever going to be a presidential contender." And Ensign was thought to be working out all his difficulties with some group called the "C Street Foundation," which describes itself as a "Bible study group" but is actually some sort of detox facility for Congresspersons who are way into sexcapades.
That's when the even shinier Mark Sanford story hit the news, along with Sarah Palin's "Oration On The Verbal Frappe Currently Coursing Out Of My Mouth In Alaska, Because I Have No Political Advisers Who Are Worth A Good God Damn." And Marion Barry straight up stalked a lady, in DC, because he is crazypants. But now: Ensign!
Driving Ensign back into the news are escalating exchanges between Hampton's husband and Ensign's allies over who got paid how much and for what, why, and when. It's all crazy confusing, the sex-scandal equivalent of the Purple Ticket Inauguration fiasco, but I think we have a handle on it:
-- Ensign's camp disclosed [ http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/Ensign_paid_96000_gift_to_Hamptons.html ] that Ensign's parents had actually paid out $96,000 to the Hamptons. But not because anyone wanted this affair kept a secret! No, no! Ensign's parents "decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time," and these monies were "consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others." So, TOTALLY NOT some kind of end-run around ethics requirements at all! What grown up senator wouldn't want his mom and dad giving large sums of monies to random friends, anyway?
-- Doug Hampton continued to make claims that he and Ensign were negotiating further payments, in the "millions of dollars." Ensign's camp, all the while, has insisted that Doug Hampton was making "exorbitant demands for cash and other financial benefits." Doug Hampton also released letter between Ensign and Cindy Hampton, and granted TV interviews that further stirred the pot.
-- Then, Doug Hampton said that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn was present, with Doug Hampton, at some sort of "meeting"/intervention to cure Ensign of his sexlexia and give the Hamptons all manner of scrilla for their trouble. In an interview, Hampton said, "These men were the ones that said, 'What we need to do is get Doug Hampton's home paid for, and we need to get Doug Hampton some money. We need to get his family to Colorado.'" Colorado being on the other side of the "sex line."
"John Ensign hasn't put me in a tough position at all," said Coburn, a housemate of Ensign's at a Capitol Hill home owned by a Christian fellowship. "The person that's deceiving now is Doug. And you all need to go do the investigation now on that side of it and quit asking us and ask what's the motivation here."
-- And Coburn, naturally blamed the media for all of this: "You've got two families that are back together and you guys are going to help tear them apart. What do you think their kids are thinking about what you're writing right now? You're helping tear apart two families that are back together -- you need to quit."
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said of Ensign's situation: "It's not good." Cornyn took over for Ensign after the 2008 elections as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is charged with getting Republicans elected. Cornyn said he has heard no talk of Ensign stepping down.
And, on top of that, there are "raw feelings cited" among Ensign supporters, which underscores the point: LUBE IS IMPORTANT. There: not afraid to be servicey!
Also today, a Washington ethics group today called for a Department of Justice criminal investigation into whether Ensign gave his mistress considerably more than $25,000 in severance pay that may have gone unreported.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said it has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to order a criminal investigation after Doug Hampton disclosed the severance payment in an interview Wednesday.
"As despicable as Sen. Ensign's conduct has been, it now appears it also may have been criminal," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW. "The Department of Justice has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans - even high level political officials - are held accountable for their actions."
So there you have it! Seems like only weeks ago that Mark Sanford had eclipsed Ensign's scandal as the more interesting one. Now, Sanford's coming off looking better, because of the increasing perception that his was something of a heartfelt, romantic struggle. There's poetry and love letters and flowery exhortations and garment-rending. Meanwhile, all the parties in the Ensign case, mucking about over money, are driving the story in a tawdrier and less-relatable direction. That said, as a citizen roaming the streets tonight, the only one you should really worry about encountering is Marion Barry.
Ensign-Coburn sexytime now has my undivided, gaydar related, attention
Thu, Jul 9, 2009
Sometimes it takes a TV news program to really lay out the parameters of a story to make it understandable. This was true tonight when I watched Rachel Maddow, who ably explained the now labyrinthine twists and turns of the latest Republican sexytime scandal to go into overdrive - the Ensign affair.
Republican Senator John Ensign had an affair. BORING! The mistress was on his payroll. OK, that’s better! Ensign’s parents paid huge sums of money to keep her quiet. NOW WE’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE. Jilted husband is now very talkative [ http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/09/hampton-breaks-silence-ensign/ (first item this post)], and fellow Senate Republican Tom Coburn is dancing around like a jack rabbit. And…AND…the secretive cult-like Christian thingy Coburn, Ensign, and HILARIOUSLY Mark Sanford hover around is now not so secret anymore. The layers of hypocrisy are thick, many, and gyrating in their complexity, but I am now keenly tuned into what I expect will be the best shoe to drop, ever.
I would bet my last breath that these guys have been porking each other, too. Because now it turns out, everyone’s favorite namesake for the frothy combination of lube and fecal matter is now involved [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24755.html ]. I’m now officially on a countdown to Bruno-like fantastitude.
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