Deliberations inside of the Justice Department surrounding the probe into Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) focus on charges of structuring, The Las Vegas Sun reported Sunday.
John Ensign (Gov)
Structuring refers to a financial transaction that is intended to evade reporting requirements. In Ensign’s case, investigators are looking into a $96,000 payment given to his mistress, Cindy Hampton, as a “gift” from his parents that was likely a severance payment that needed to be reported on public disclosure forms.
Last week, The New York Times reported that Ensign sought financial backing for a Nevada energy company in 2008, at the same time asking the company to hire his mistress’s husband, Doug Hampton, who was a former staffer for the senator.
Writes The Las Vegas Sun:
The department is being very deliberate in assembling a case against Ensign. But Justice has a mountain of documents and e-mails that, combined with the senator’s own admissions or statements in e-mails, would seem to amount to a formidable case. And last week’s New York Times story, showing how Ensign’s contacts with a local company (similar to several other interactions), show how far the senator was willing to go to get Hampton work, mostly while he was employed by ex-Ensign aides who had formed a lobbying/consulting firm. The structure, so to speak, is becoming more transparent all the time.
Read the full story here.
