John Ensign

Tangled Web Of Jobs, Money, Illicit Sex Links Ensign, Former Staffers

Zachary Roth | June 17, 2009, 5:25PM

Since Sen. John Ensign confessed to an affair yesterday afternoon, a web of financial and professional ties linking Ensign to his girlfriend, Cynthia Hampton, and to her husband, Doug Hampton, has emerged.

Politico reports that the affair took place from December 2007 until May 2008. Cynthia Hampton was employed last year as the treasurer of Ensign's Senate reelection campaign. And in February, 2008, Ensign made her treasurer of his Battle Born Political Action Committee, when Christopher Ward, who had held the job, was ousted amid a fiscal scandal. The same day, Hampton also took over from Ward as treasurer of the Senate Majority Committee, a joint fundraising committee for six GOP senators, including Ensign, who faced reelection that year. This move, too, appears to have been instigated by Ensign. When Hampton left the campaign in May 2008, Ensign gave her a severance package of an unknown amount.

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