Staffers for Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) are expected to testify before a grand jury on their boss’s sex-and-lobbying scandal.
The Senate this week approved a resolution allowing the staffers to speak to the grand jury. Senate employees are normally prohibited from testifying outside of Congress.
Ensign’s staff has reportedly already been speaking to the Senate ethics committee, and Ensign’s campaign is paying for several of their related legal bills.
And, as Politico reported last week, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), one of Ensign’s fellow C-Streeters, handed over 1,200 pages of emails to the Justice Department.
Ensign admitted to having an affair with a staffer, Cynthia Hampton, who was also the wife of another of Ensign’s staffers. He’s also admitted that his parents paid the couple $96,000.
What the DOJ and the ethics panel are investigating is whether Ensign broke Senate lobbying laws. He allegedly set up Hampton’s husband, Doug Hampton, with lobbying gigs after the Hamptons left his office.
His staffers reportedly told the ethics committee that Ensign knew he was violating the lobbying ban.
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