John Ensign

Which Candidates Want Ensign To Campaign For Them? His Office Won't Say

Zachary Roth | November 30, 2009, 2:58PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

As we told you earlier, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) said during a radio interview this morning that despite his well-chronicled personal travails, 2010 candidates have told him they wanted him to campaign for them.

"A lot of people running for office next year, I've met with them, they actually want me involved in their campaigns," the philandering lawmaker told Alan Stock of Las Vegas's KXNT News Radio. "I'm gonna try to be helpful without being hurtful."

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Tim Durham

Latest High-Flying Accused Ponzi Schemer Has Ties To Indiana Guv

Zachary Roth | November 30, 2009, 2:06PM

Tim Durham

Meet the latest high-living accused Ponzi schemer with close ties to Republican politicians. That would be Tim Durham, the flamboyant Indianapolis-based owner of Fair Finance Co., and ally of Governor Mitch Daniels...

In court papers filed last week by the Feds and examined by TPMmuckraker, Durham was accused of using money from new purchasers of his company's investment certificates to pay off earlier investors, thereby thereby "lulling the earlier victims into believing that their money was being [handled] responsibily." The filing followed an FBI raid last Wednesday on Durham's Indianapolis office.

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John Ensign

Ensign: Candidates Want Me To Campaign For Them

Zachary Roth | November 30, 2009, 11:32AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) just told a radio interviewer that, despite his personal travails, 2010 candidates are eager for him to campaign with them.

"A lot of people running for office next year, I've met with them, they actually want me involved in their campaigns," Ensign told Alan Stock of Las Vegas's KXNT News Radio. "I'm gonna try to be helpful without being hurtful."

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John Ensign

Ensign Set To Break Silence On Affair

Zachary Roth | November 30, 2009, 10:51AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) is set to break his silence this morning on his affair with the wife of a former top staffer, and the help he provided for the couple once the affair was discovered, which may have involved violating lobbying and campaign-finance rules.

Since admitting to the affair this summer, Ensign has said almost nothing about it. But he'll discuss it at 8am PST, in an interview with Las-Vegas-based News Radio 840 KXNT. We'll be listening, so stay tuned....

Sex

The Best Sex-Scandal Haikus

Zachary Roth | November 27, 2009, 12:52PM

The entries in our sex-scandal haiku contest are pouring in. Here are a few of our favorites:

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Mark Sanford

TPM Reader Challenge: The Sex-Scandal Haiku!

Zachary Roth | November 27, 2009, 11:46AM

The Los Angeles Times notes that a text sent by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) to his girlfriend is just one syllable away from being a haiku -- the Japanese poetic form that consists of five syllables in the first and third lines, and seven in the second.

Wrote Ensign to his beloved:

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Paul Bergrin

Feds: Former US Prosecutor Helped Rub Out Witnesses For Gangster Clients, Ran Drugs And Call-Girls

Zachary Roth | November 24, 2009, 12:14PM

Paul Bergrin

From federal prosecutor to accused violent gangster, pimp, and drug-dealer...That's the unusual career trajectory taken, say the Feds, by Paul Bergrin, who was indicted earlier this month in a 39-count racketeering indictment.

In a drama that could have been made for HBO, Bergrin -- a white-collar defense lawyer who once represented, pro bono, a solider accused of abusing Abu Ghraib detainees -- seems to have allowed his gangster clients to drag him into a world of violent crime. And he may have gone a lot further than Maury Levy ever did for Stringer Bell.

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John Ensign

Ethics Probers Still Haven't Talked To Hampton On Ensign Matter

Zachary Roth | November 24, 2009, 9:48AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Last night, Nightline aired its full interview with Doug Hampton, about the amazing circumstances surrounding the affair between Hampton's wife Cindy and his former boss, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV).

Some of the best stuff trickled out early, but there are still a few good new nuggets. For instance:

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John Ensign

Hampton: To Hide Affair, Ensign Made Me And Cindy Attend 'Goodbye Party' After Firing Us

Zachary Roth | November 23, 2009, 4:41PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

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:

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Mark Sanford

Gov. Sanford Faces 37 Charges Of Lawbreaking By Ethics Panel

Justin Elliott | November 23, 2009, 2:39PM

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

South Carolina's ethics commission is investigating 37 allegations of lawbreaking by Gov. Mark Sanford in connection with travel and use of campaign funds -- charges his lawyer described just last week as "minor, technical matters."

Sanford is accused of violating ethics laws barring officials from buying high-priced airfare -- including on trips to visit his lover in Argentina last year -- as well as using state airplanes for personal travel, The State reports.

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John Ensign

Coburn: I Acted As Ensign-Hampton Go-Between

Zachary Roth | November 23, 2009, 10:35AM

Yesterday on ABC News's This Week, there was an exchange between Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and host George Stephanopoulos about Coburn's role as an "intermediary" between Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Doug Hampton, the man with whose wife the Nevada senator had an affair. And it's hard to know what to make of it.

From the transcript:

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Mark Sanford

Lawmakers To Take Up Impeachment Proceedings Against Sanford

Zachary Roth | November 20, 2009, 1:25PM

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

South Carolina lawmakers will next week take up impeachment proceedings against disgraced governor Mark Sanford.

House Judiciary committee chair Jim Harrison told the AP that an ad hoc panel of four Republicans and three Democrats will begin meeting Tuesday. Harrison said he expects a resolution to impeach will be ready before Christmas. That would then be considered by the full committee.

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Doug Hampton

Hampton: 'Crystal Clear' That Ensign Payment Was Severance

Zachary Roth | November 20, 2009, 10:05AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Doug Hampton's campaign to bring down the man who slept with his wife continues.

Hampton's latest blast at Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) came in a sit-down with ABC News's Nightline. In excerpts teased on the ABC News site, Hampton doubles down on his contention that the $96,000 he and his wife received from Ensign's parents, after the affair was discovered, was a severance package, not a gift as Ensign has claimed. A severance payment would have violated campaign-finance laws.

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John Ensign

Will Ensign Escape Criminal Probe?

Zachary Roth | November 19, 2009, 12:03PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Is the Justice Department leaning towards laying off Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)?

That's the direction in which Politico's reporting seems to point. According to the new site, DOJ officials "signal that the case is a low-priority matter for them." It adds that "no one close to Ensign or the Hamptons has been contacted by any federal investigators." And it notes that the Senate Ethics committee, which usually stands down when Justice is involved, has been forging ahead with its probe of the philandering Nevada senator.

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Mark Sanford

SC Ethics Panel Finds Probable Cause To Charge Sanford With Violations

Justin Elliott | November 19, 2009, 11:54AM

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

The remaining 14 months of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's term may be about to get still more excruciating. The state ethics panel announced today it is moving ahead with its investigation of Sanford's travel and use of state funds in connection with his affair with an Argentinian woman, The State reports.

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C Street

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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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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Heidi DeJong Barsuglia

"Hot Mike" Duvall Won't Face Charges In Sex Boasting Flap

Zachary Roth | November 2, 2009, 6:36PM

Fmr. State Rep. Michael Duvall (R-CA)

Hot Mike Duvall -- who stepped down as a state lawmaker after his raucous sexual braggadocio was picked up by a live microphone -- is getting off.

The California Republican won't face federal charges in connection to the incident, the local U.S. attorney's office announced today.

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