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Corrupt Government Title: vMore Messages Link Senator to Job Effort (Ensign) WASHINGTON — Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign’s efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress and could deepen his legal and political troubles. Mr. Ensign, Republican of Nevada, suggested that a Las Vegas development firm hire the husband, Douglas Hampton, after it had sought the senator’s help on several energy projects in 2008, according to e-mail messages and interviews with company executives. The messages are the first written records from Mr. Ensign documenting his efforts to find clients for Mr. Hampton, a top aide and close friend, after the senator had an affair with his wife, Cynthia Hampton. They appear to undercut the senator’s assertion that he did not know the work might involve Congressional lobbying, which could violate a federal ban on such activities by staff members for a year after leaving government. The e-mail messages also hint at what Mr. Ensign’s office now says was an effort by the Las Vegas firm, a small energy investment business called P2SA Equity, to improperly link Mr. Ensign’s possible assistance to a promised donation. The F.B.I. and the Senate Ethics Committee are investigating whether Mr. Ensign, in trying to contain the fallout from his affair with Ms. Hampton, conspired to find lobbying work for her husband despite the federal restrictions. They are also examining a $96,000 payment Mr. Ensign’s parents made to the Hamptons. Mr. Hampton has said that the senator promised to work around the lobbying ban and help him make up the income that he and his wife, a former Ensign campaign staff member, lost when they left their jobs after the affair ended in 2008. The e-mail messages involving P2SA, which were provided to The New York Times by someone involved in the case, appear to open a new line of inquiry to investigators. In October, The Times disclosed Mr. Ensign’s role in securing lucrative jobs for Mr. Hampton at two other Nevada companies — NV Energy and Allegiant Air — and intervening with federal officials on behalf of those companies. But the senator’s discussions with P2SA executives about potential work for Mr. Hampton have not been previously reported. Mr. Ensign’s entreaties to P2SA, though, were unsuccessful. Executives there decided after several interviews with Mr. Hampton that they did not have a spot for him. Mr. Ensign denied any wrongdoing. “Senator Ensign has stated clearly, he has not violated any law or Senate ethics rule,” said Rebecca Fisher, the senator’s spokeswoman. “If Doug Hampton violated federal law or rules, Senator Ensign did not advise him to do so, did not suggest that he do so, and did not cooperate with his doing so.” Officials from the F.B.I. and the Senate ethics panel declined to comment. P2SA, which has tried to turn Las Vegas into a national center for alternative energy, is co-owned by Greg J. Paulk, a contractor who has been a campaign donor to Mr. Ensign. According to the e-mail messages, Mr. Ensign met with Mr. Paulk and Bob Andrews, then P2SA’s executive vice president, in May 2008 to discuss any help the senator might be able to provide on energy projects. At that time, Mr. Ensign was scrambling to find work for Mr. Hampton, his former top administrative aide. The senator had already helped find a position for Mr. Hampton at November Inc., a political consulting shop run by a former fund-raiser for the senator, and had spoken with donors at Allegiant Air and NV Energy about possible consulting work there. At the meeting, Mr. Andrews said in an interview, he sought the senator’s support for a biodiesel facility the company was building in Las Vegas and a possible land swap in Sloan, Nev., with the federal Bureau of Land Management (referred to as BLM in e-mail exchanges) so the company could build a solar power plant. Mr. Ensign brought up the idea of P2SA’s hiring Mr. Hampton, Mr. Andrews recalled. The senator mentioned “that he might have somebody we should talk to who might be able to provide us with assistance in our biodiesel program,” Mr. Andrews said, adding: “I took this as a helpful hint.” In a follow-up e-mail message obtained by the F.B.I. and Senate investigators, Mr. Andrews wrote to Mr. Ensign: “We are excited about the assistance that you and your staff may be able to give us in regards to the Biodiesel and our properties south of Sloan.” Mr. Andrews added: “Give me the information regarding next week’s fund-raising and we will certainly attend. Thanks again.” According to the documents, Mr. Ensign forwarded the note about the company’s business plans to Mr. Hampton with a message of his own saying: “I think you have played golf with him. This is who I met with.” That led to a series of meetings between Mr. Hampton and Mr. Andrews about consulting work. “It was my understanding he was in the lobbying business,” Mr. Andrews said of Mr. Hampton. “Being able to lobby our Congressional and senatorial lawmakers was certainly something we were exploring.” Mr. Ensign also spoke with Mr. Slanker at November Inc. about Mr. Hampton’s job prospects. “Spoke with JE about the Paulks,” Mr. Slanker, using the senator’s initials, told Mr. Hampton in an e-mail message. “They are looking into energy stuff in rural NV possibly and might need BLM help.” The firm was a “solid prospect” for consulting work, he said. In an e-mail message on May 30, 2008, Mr. Hampton told the senator that he expected to meet soon with Mr. Andrews about a consulting job. Six weeks later, though, he e-mailed again to say that the firm had “decided they do not need the service at this time.” Still, the case could pose legal problems for Mr. Ensign, ethics lawyers said. The one-year ban on lobbying by former Congressional aides applies mainly to the former employees themselves. But investigators are seeking to determine if Mr. Ensign helped Mr. Hampton flout the law, and whether the senator’s decision to pass Mr. Hampton information about P2SA’s proposals could constitute improper “contact,” even if it did not produce a job, several lawyers said. At a minimum, the Senate ethics committee would most likely want to determine whether the e-mail messages between Mr. Ensign and Mr. Hampton related to an “official matter” under ethics restrictions, said Elliot S. Berke, a lawyer specializing in Congressional ethics. With ethics allegations swirling in Washington, the case against Mr. Ensign is one of the few to have risen to a criminal investigation. P2SA’s projects ultimately foundered. The biodiesel plant it financed was built but never opened, and the idea for a solar plant stalled. But Mr. Ensign did push legislation, which would have benefited the company, to provide a new tax break for solar power projects, and he voted to extend a separate tax break for biodiesel plants. Ms. Fisher, the spokeswoman for Mr. Ensign, said the senator’s actions were unrelated to any requests by P2SA. She acknowledged, though, that the firm’s apparent linking of campaign contributions to political help raised ethical issues. In August 2008, two months after meeting with the senator, Mr. Paulk donated $10,000 to a political action committee affiliated with Mr. Ensign and a half-dozen other politicians, records show. Ms. Fisher said Mr. Ensign’s office returned $1,666 — his share of the contribution — in late 2008 after a staff member alerted him to the potential ethics problem. “The senator acted immediately by calling the company to tell them that his office could not assist them because the subject of fund-raising had been raised in the context of a request for assistance,” Ms. Fisher said. “Senator Ensign has consistently acted in an ethical manner to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”
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#1. To: go65 (#0)
IF he was a democrat he'd be on Glenn Beck (eyes rolling)...
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