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Chip Pickering

C Street House No Longer Tax Exempt

Zachary Roth | November 17, 2009, 1:40PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.

Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.

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Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering, Jim DeMint, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Sex, Tom Coburn

John Ensign

Ensign No Longer At C Street: Report

Zachary Roth | November 9, 2009, 10:04AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) had some good times and some bad times at the Christian home on C Street that he's lived in since 1995. But now, reports the Las Vegas Sun, he's moved out.

According to the paper, Ensign was not pushed out, but rather left on his own, out of a desire to spare the house's residents any further unwanted publicity. The New York Times had reported late last month that, according two of the senator's friends, he was making plans to move out.

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Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Sex, Tom Coburn

C Street

Sign Of The Times: Lawmaker Won't Say Whether He Lives At C Street

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 11:33AM

These are tough times for C St.

The usually low-profile Capitol Hill-based Christian dorm and bible study group has been at the center of a media frenzy after three separate Republicans with ties to C St admitted to extra-marital affairs in recent weeks. And now, things have gotten so bad that one Christian lawmaker is treating the issue like a state secret, refusing even to say whether he lives there.

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Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, Sex

C Street

Suit: Pickering Chose Mistress Over Senate Seat

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 6:48PM

Former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) and erstwhile C Street resident turned down Trent Lott's old Senate seat so he could be with his mistress, according to the lawsuit filed by his estranged wife this week.

The suit alleges that when Trent Lott resigned in 2007, Gov. Haley Barbour offered Rep. Pickering the seat. But the congressman turned it down after his girlfriend, Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd, "insisted" that their relationship could not continue if he accepted the seat, as he would have to stay married for public appearances. She allegedly gave him an ultimatum, and he chose her.

A spokesman for Barbour told Muckraker that he never offered Pickering the seat.

Shortly afterward, the suit says, Pickering moved out of his home. He filed for divorce in 2008, but that case is sealed.

Other gems from the suit, which Leisha Pickering filed against Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection:

Creekmore-Byrd is allegedly on the board of Telepak, her family's Internet company, which employs the lobbyist organization Capitol Resources. Pickering claims the mistress got her husband a job with the lobbyists. (A visit to the company's web site shows he does work in their Mississippi office.)

The suit alleges that Creekmore-Byrd aimed "to entice and tortuously interfere" with the Pickerings' marriage, with the help of seven unnamed defendants. It also says the alleged mistress's actions would "evoke outrage and disgust in civilized society."

Pickering alleges that Creekmore-Byrd showed up at a family ski vacation intending to cause a marriage-ending rift.

Leisha Pickering apparently gleaned this information from her husband's journals and other documents, which a judge ordered returned to Rep. Pickering. The judge also apparently forbade Mrs. Pickering and her lawyers from discussing what was in the documents.

You can take a look at the lawsuit here.

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Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering

C Street

Another C Street Vet Falls To An Extramarital Affair

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 5:05PM

Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen -- the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.

What's with this place?

The suit alleges Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd are still together. Perhaps they're soul mates?

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Hinds County Circuit Court in Mississippi, is 28 14 pages long, plus evidence, so we'll be posting more if we find anything particularly juicy.

Late Update: The suit says Rep. Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd rekindled their relationship while he was a congressman, before and while living at the C-Street facility. The relationship was "completely unknown" by Leisha Pickering, as it occurred in Washington on weekdays, and the congressman would return home to his wife and five children only on weekends.

Later Update: The suit also alleges Pickering declined Trent Lott's Senate seat and instead quit Congress altogether when his mistress gave him an ultimatum. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour denies he offered Pickering the seat.