More nuggets are being reported from Doug Hampton’s interview with Nightline, set to air tonight, about Sen. John Ensign’s affair with Hampton’s wife. And they somehow make the Nevada senator look even worse than he already did, if that’s possible.
Politico, which seems to have gotten a look at the full interview, reports:
Doug Hampton said that when Ensign fired him and his wife over the affair in April 2008, he still made the Hamptons attend a goodbye party in their honor so that no one would guess the real reason behind their dismissal.“[Ensign] called me and said you need to come back here; I need to throw you a party. If you don’t come back here and let me throw you a party, people will suspect something,” Hampton told ABC. Ensign reportedly gave Hampton a crystal replica of the Capitol with the inscription “To the best AA on Capitol Hill.”
So not only did Ensign sleep with his good friend’s wife, before firing them both. He then forced both to attend a “goodbye party” so that no one would suspect the departure was anything less than cordial.
Words fail.
Hampton also said in the interview, according to Politico, that he hasn’t been contacted by investigators, despite a slew of evidence that Ensign, a Republican, may have broken the law by encouraging his office to retain contact with Hampton, after setting him up as a lobbyist, and then taking action on behalf of Hampton’s clients.
And as we told you last week, Hampton also says in the interview that it was “crystal clear” the payment Ensign made to the Hamptons was not a gift, but rather was severance — which would violate campaign-finance laws.