John Ensign

Ominously For Ensign, Probe's Focus Appears To Shift To Possible Quid Pro Quo

Zachary Roth | March 19, 2010, 3:49PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Buried under the pile of details that have emerged in the last 48 hours on the John Ensign investigation is one crucial over-arching development: The federal probe into the matter appears to have expanded, and shifted its focus in a way that may could make it an even graver threat to the Nevada senator than before.

In a nutshell: The Justice Department investigation began as an inquiry into whether Ensign flouted a lobbying ban by trying to help Doug Hampton get a lobbying job after Hampton left Ensign's office, and by directing his staff to work with Hampton once he was set up as a lobbyist. But now, it seems, investigators have also moved beyond Hampton, to consider whether the senator illegally tied legislative favors to contributions to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which he chaired.

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John Ensign

Another NV Firm Subpoenaed In Ensign Probe -- Says Founder Met With Senator To Discuss A Contribution

Zachary Roth | March 19, 2010, 12:41PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

A new Nevada company has surfaced in connection with the widening John Ensign probe.

The Associated Press reports:

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John Ensign

Credit Card Firm: We Were Subpoenaed By Feds In Ensign Case

Zachary Roth | March 19, 2010, 11:54AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Here's a statement from eCommLink, one of the Nevada companies at the center of the mushrooming John Ensign investigation, acknowledging that it has received a subpoena from the Justice Department:

eCommLink, like a number of other Nevada companies, has received subpoenas regarding the Federal investigation of Senator John Ensign. We are cooperating fully in this investigation.

eCommLink has acted ethically and lawfully at all times and has not been accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever.

We pride ourselves on our own internal commitment to a high level of integrity in all of our business transactions. Additionally, as a member of the financial transaction industry, we are under constant scrutiny due to our strict adherence to the industry regulations and standards.

Ennio Ponzetto
CEO of eCommLink

KLAS-TV reported yesterday that the company, and other credit card firms, contributed to Ensign's NRSC in exchange for Ensign's help in fighting new regulations.

Jack Williams, who KLAS reported was at the time the CEO of eCommLink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FBI

Report: High-Ranking FBI Official Under Investigation After Alleged Affair

Justin Elliott | March 19, 2010, 10:37AM

Joseph Demarest

The head of the FBI's New York office is under investigation by the Justice Department's internal watchdog in connection with an alleged affair with a lower-level employee, ticklethewire.com reports.

The Web site, which covers federal law enforcement, reports that investigators from the Office of Professional Responsibility are looking at whether Joseph Demarest lied when asked internally about an alleged affair with another employee.

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Orly Taitz

California Bar Now Investigating Orly Taitz

Justin Elliott | March 19, 2010, 9:41AM

Orly Taitz

The State Bar of California is investigating Orly Taitz, a process that could ultimately result in the Birther attorney's disbarment, Taitz and her lawyer confirmed to TPMmuckraker.

The investigation was prompted at least in part by a sanction for professional misconduct against Taitz in a Birther case in federal court in Georgia. Taitz continues to fight the $20,000 fine, which was imposed on her for making frivolous filings.

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John Ensign

Ensign Asked Top Nevada GOP Consultant To Meet With Hampton

Zachary Roth | March 19, 2010, 9:38AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Add another name to the list of people Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) approached in his desperate bid to find a job for Doug Hampton after sleeping with Hampton's wife.

Sig Rogich, a veteran Nevada GOP political consultant met with investigators, and told them that he had a meeting with Hampton after "Ensign had asked me to meet him," according to what Rogich told Politico. "I told [Hampton] at a 10-minute meeting I did not have" a job for him, Rogich, a former Reagan administration communications aide, added. "That was it basically."

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John Ensign

Report: Firms Linked To Possible Ensign Quid Pro Quo Subpoenaed

Zachary Roth | March 18, 2010, 6:41PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

The Las Vegas news station adds more details about who has been contacted by investigators looking into the John Ensign sex-and-lobbying scandal.

Perhaps most significantly, it reports that "[e]xecutives at card companies eCommLink, Selling Source and Pay Card USA have been served by the grand jury."

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Hassan Nemazee

Dem Super Donor Nemazee Pleads Guilty To $292M Fraud

Justin Elliott | March 18, 2010, 4:41PM

Hassan Nemazee

Hassan Nemazee, who spent millions on a luxury lifestyle including huge donations to top Democratic politicians, pleaded guilty to a $292 million fraud scheme today in federal court in Manhattan, Reuters reports.

Nemazee's scheme involved borrowing huge sums from three banks and promising to pay off each bank with a loan from one of the others.

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John Ensign

Ensign's Office Won't Say If It's Been Subpoenaed

Zachary Roth | March 18, 2010, 4:03PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Sen. John Ensign's office is declining to say whether it has been subpoenaed by federal investigators probing the aftermath of the senator's sex-and-lobbying scandal.

Asked whether Ensign or his office had received subpoenas, Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the senator, responded:

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John Ensign

NRSC Subpoenaed In Ensign Probe

Zachary Roth | March 18, 2010, 3:02PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury that's investigating the John Ensign sex-and-lobbying scandal, reports Politico.

Federal investigators asked the NRSC for documents relating to the Nevada senator's 2007-08 tenure as chair of the committee.

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Health Care Reform

Fat Paydays For Key Players On Both Sides Of Health Care Debate

Justin Elliott | March 18, 2010, 2:55PM

Key players in the year-long fight over health care reform -- including heavyweights like PhRMA's Billy Tauzin and Karen Ignagni of America's Health Insurance Plans -- rake in huge annual salaries, according to tax filings.

New IRS rules require non-profits, including trade associations representing health care stakeholders, to disclose more salary information than ever before, a development first reported on by Roll Call.

So TPMmuckraker decided to take a look at what the lobbyists and leaders of these organizations make for a day's work.

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Ray McBerry

Two Georgia Gov Candidates Were Accused Of Inappropriate Behavior With Female Students

Zachary Roth | March 18, 2010, 12:00PM

Carl Camon and Ray McBerry, Democratic and Republican candidates for governor of Georgia

What's the matter with Georgia? Two long-shot candidates in the state's governor's race were suspended as school-teachers after allegations of inappropriate conduct with female high-school students.

One of those, Republican Ray McBerry, leads a Georgia secessionist group and is hovering around 2 percent in GOP primary polls. McBerry already last weekend issued a hilarious pre-emptive denial of those charges -- as well as several others. The other, Democrat Carl Camon, is the mayor of Ray City, and polls around 2 percent in the Democratic primary.

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John Ensign

Report: Six Businesses Subpoenaed In 'Deadly Serious' Ensign Probe

Zachary Roth | March 18, 2010, 10:04AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

It sounds like the federal grand jury probe of the sex-and-lobbying scandal that ensnared Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) is getting hotter than a Las Vegas parking lot in July.

Two Justice Department investigators came to Sin City last week with subpoenas for six local business, reports a TV news station -- part of what's described as a "wide-ranging and deadly-serious criminal probe."

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Bernard Madoff

WSJ: Madoff Was Beaten In Prison

Justin Elliott | March 18, 2010, 9:12AM

Master Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff was badly beaten in prison late last year, according to a new Wall Street Journal story citing jailhouse sources.

According to the Journal, Madoff, who is serving 150 years for his massive fraud, was assaulted by a man in a dispute over money. An inmate at the prison in Butner, NC, told the paper that Madoff was treated for a "broken nose, fractured ribs and cuts to his head and face."

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Chamber of Commerce

Chamber Gearing Up To Spend Like Never Before On Midterms

Zachary Roth | March 17, 2010, 5:40PM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- already a major force in fighting the Obama administration's big-ticket domestic agenda items -- is set to play an out-sized role in this fall's midterms.

The business lobby plans to spend at least $50 million in a bid to sway around 10 Senate up to 40 House races on behalf of "pro-business" candidates, primarily Republicans, reports the Washington Post. To do so, it has built a grassroots machine, Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with a member list of 6 million names. The effort is based in part on the much-praised field operation for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

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New York

Paterson Gives Narrow Denial On Role In Aide's Domestic Violence Case (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | March 17, 2010, 2:53PM

Gov. David Paterson (D-NY)

Appearing on Don Imus' show on Fox Business today, New York Gov. David Paterson for the first time appeared to deny that he improperly intervened in the domestic violence case of a top aide.

Asked by Imus what happened when he reportedly spoke on the phone with the woman who had accused Paterson aide David Johnson of assaulting her on Halloween last year, Paterson responded in narrow terms (emphasis ours):

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Republican Majority Campaign

In It For The Money? Conservative PAC Spends Big, But Not On Candidates

Justin Elliott | March 17, 2010, 1:00PM

Gary Kreep

A California-based PAC called the Republican Majority Campaign spent nearly all of the $1.7 million it raked in from conservative donors last year, but less than 2% of the money went to supporting candidates or independent political spending.

The rest of the money raised by the group went to operating expenses, salaries for the PAC's top officers, and back into fundraising appeals -- which often ask supporters for as much as $144 in exchange for sending faxes opposing health care reform to members of Congress.

The lion's share -- roughly $1.3 million -- of the group's 2009 fundraising haul went to a murky Arizona telemarketing firm that goes under the name Political Advertising, which has been linked to questionable PAC activities in the past. Its business type in the state's registry is given as "telephone fundraising."

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Pay-Day Lenders

With Heavy Washington Presence, Pay-Day Lenders Sway Lawmakers, Attack Critics

Zachary Roth | March 17, 2010, 12:39PM

The weakening of the Senate proposal on financial reform unveiled this week, after lobbying from the pay-day lending industry, should come as little surprise. In recent years, the industry has built a sophisticated Washington lobbying and public relations operation, which it has used to promote its interests, savage its critics, and shape the public debate.

The $42-billion-a-year pay-day lending industry offers short-term loans often designed to tide customers over until their next pay-check. But the loans, which can carry interest rates of as much as 400 percent on an annualized basis, lead many working-class borrowers to end up digging themselves deeper into debt. As a result, the pay-day lenders have become a prime target of consumer advocates and their allies on Congress, who accuse the industry of preying on struggling Americans, and have in recent years sought ways to rein it in.

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Sue Myrick

GOP Rep. Myrick Endorses Conference Of Noted Islamophobe

Justin Elliott | March 17, 2010, 10:03AM

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC)

Fresh off a tense town hall with Muslim constituents last month, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) has blasted out a letter enthusiastically endorsing the group ACT! For America, and its leader, Brigitte Gabriel, who has made a number of extreme comments against Muslims.

ACT! For America's national conference and legislative briefing is scheduled for June in Washington, D.C. The group describes itself as "a collective voice for the democratic values of Western Civilization, such as the celebration of life and liberty, as opposed to the authoritarian values of Islamofascism, such as the celebration of death, terror and tyranny."

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John Conyers

'On Her Own' For Legal Fees, Monica Conyers Declared Indigent

Justin Elliott | March 16, 2010, 5:33PM

Monica Conyers and Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)

With former Detroit City Council president Monica Conyers appealing the three-year sentence she received last week after pleading guilty to bribery charges, a federal judge today appointed a public defender to represent Conyers, whom he declared indigent.

A statement from a court spokesman suggests that Monica Conyers' husband, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), is not willing to pitch in for legal fees.

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Don Young

Don Young To GOP: Earmark Ban Schmearmark Ban

Zachary Roth | March 16, 2010, 2:53PM

Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) praising earmarks is hardly news. After all, the Alaska lawmaker, whose "generous appetite for legislative pork," was once noted by the New Republic, is a co-sponsor of the Bridge to Nowhere, and bragged of an appropriations bill that he had "stuffed it like a turkey" with homestate spending items.

But these days, Young's pro-earmark position isn't jibing too well with the image the GOP caucus wants to project. Eager to present themselves as more restrained than House Democrats and the Obama administration, House Republicans last week announced a one-year earmark hiatus.

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Scott Rothstein

Report: FL Ponzi Schemer Wore Wire To Snag Alleged Mobster

Justin Elliott | March 16, 2010, 1:01PM

Scott Rothstein

With his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme crumbling last fall, a desperate Scott Rothstein agreed to cooperate with the Feds in a sting operation that helped bring down an alleged Sicilian mafioso, according to a remarkable new story in the Miami Herald.

Roberto Settineri was arrested in Florida last week on money laundering charges. On the same day, he was charged in Italy with "extortion, drug trafficking, attempted homicide, and other crimes arising from their alleged affiliation with Santa Maria di Gesù, a Sicilian mafia family," according to the FBI.

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Pay-Day Lenders

After Lobbying By Pay-Day Lenders, Dodd Bill Is Weakened

Zachary Roth | March 16, 2010, 12:33PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).

As we've reported, the pay-day lending industry -- one of the most predatory players corners in the modern financial system -- has recently been hard at work lobbying to water down provisions in the financial regulatory reform bill currently in the Senate. (We also told you about the industry's key lobbyist, who used to be the sub-prime industry's man in Washington.)

Now Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has unveiled the reform proposal that will create the basis for the Senate bill. And it looks like the industry's lobbying, up to a point, has paid off -- although it's still unhappy that it's being seriously regulated at all.

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Virginia Thomas

Clarence Thomas's Wife's New Group Uses Stock Photos Of Minorities

Zachary Roth | March 16, 2010, 10:01AM

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Virginia Thomas

There's nothing wrong with an organization using stock photos in its promotional pictures. After all, that's why they're produced.

Still, it's kind of funny to note that the new Tea-Party-inspired advocacy group launched by Virginia Thomas -- the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas -- uses stock photos to convey the impression of minority support for its conservative goals.

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Birthers

Appeals Court Upholds $20,000 Fine Against Orly Taitz

Justin Elliott | March 16, 2010, 8:50AM

Orly Taitz

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Orly Taitz's appeal of the $20,000 fine imposed on her for making frivolous filings in a long-running Birther case.

"We have fully considered Taitz's arguments," the ruling from a three-judge panel reads. "We find them unpersuasive and therefore affirm the district court's sanctions judgment."

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Marco Rubio

Report: Rubio Failed To Disclose $34,000 In PAC Expenses

Zachary Roth | March 15, 2010, 6:06PM

Former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL)

Marco Rubio has led a pretty charmed life lately, as he's vaulted past Gov. Charlie Crist to take a commanding lead in the race for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.

But that could be ending. Last week, the Miami Herald reported that Rubio had charged computer supplies, groceries, and products from a music equipment store and a wine store, among other items, to the Florida GOP. And over the weekend, the St. Petersburg Times added to the picture, with a detailed look at the finances of the various political action committees that Rubio set up over the last decade, as he charted a course from little-known local pol to Speaker of the Florida House.

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Virginia Thomas

Clarence Thomas's Wife Teams With Federalist Society Exec On New Conservative Lobby Group

Zachary Roth | March 15, 2010, 3:28PM

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Virginia Thomas

The new conservative advocacy group launched by Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has close ties to Washington's powerful conservative legal community.

As the Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend, Virginia Thomas recently created Liberty Central, a new lobbying group that seeks to tap into the grassroots energy unleashed by the Tea Party movement.

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Ray McBerry

GOP Gov Candidate Admits Refusing To Salute Flag -- Denies Hitting On Campaign Manager, Sex With Underage Girls

Zachary Roth | March 15, 2010, 12:22PM

Ray McBerry, Republican candidate for governor of Georgia

A far-right Republican candidate for governor of Georgia has issued what must be one of the most counter-productive -- and flat-out hilarious -- denials in the history of modern political campaigning.

On Saturday, Ray McBerry sent out a lengthy statement denying that he "attempted to have an affair" with his former campaign manager; had sexual relations with under-aged girls; stole custody of his son from the son's mother (who, he noted, had tested positive for meth anyway); is no longer allowed to teach in the state; and is unpatriotic, just because he refuses to salute "the current federal flag which represents the present unconstitutional leviathan in Washington," and instead salutes the flag of Georgia and the "original Betsy Ross American flag."

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John Ensign

GOP Aide On 'Isolated' Ensign: 'I Almost Forget He's Still Here'

Zachary Roth | March 15, 2010, 10:37AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

It sounds like John Ensign's sex and lobbying scandal is taking a toll on the Nevada Republican's effectiveness in the Senate.

One GOP aide told Politico: "Like Vitter, Ensign doesn't get invited to a lot of press conferences because no one wants their boss in a photo op with them." Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) was identified in 2007 as a client of the DC Madam.

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Kevin Garn

Utah House Leader Resigns After Naked Hot-Tubbing Revelation

Jillian Rayfield | March 15, 2010, 9:50AM

Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn (R)

Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn (R) has resigned, following revelations that he took a nude hot tub in 1985 with a 15-year-old employee -- and then paid her $150,000 several years later to keep quiet.

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