John Ensign scandal

The John Ensign scandal related to revelations in 2009 of an extramarital affair between United States Senator John Ensign from Nevada and campaign aide Cynthia Hampton from 2007 to 2008, and actions taken by Ensign to keep the affair secret. He was investigated for potential violations of federal rules about conflict of interest after he arranged for Doug Hampton, Cynthia's husband and formerly a top staffer in his Washington, DC office, to gain a private lobbying job and apparently used his federal position to benefit Hampton's clients.

Ensign resigned from the Senate in 2011 during a Senate Ethics Committee investigation and returned to Las Vegas, Nevada. The committee turned its report over to the Department of Justice for investigation of potential violation of laws. The DOJ found evidence of strong-arm tactics, but decided against prosecution of Ensign, according to internal federal documents released under an FOIA in late 2014. Doug Hampton was prosecuted and reached a plea deal with the government in May 2012.

At the time of the affair, Cynthia Hampton worked for Ensign as treasurer of the Senate and Battle Born PAC (a conservative political action committee of which Ensign was the honorary chairman). She and her husband Douglas Hampton were close friends of Ensign and his wife; Doug worked as a top administrative aide in Senator Ensign’s Capitol Hill office. When the affair was revealed by Doug Hampton in 2009, an Ensign spokesperson asserted that it had occurred between December 2007 and August 2008, but Hampton said that it began at Christmas 2006.

Neither of the Hamptons worked for Ensign after May 2008. Cynthia Hampton never spoke publicly about the affair. She testified to the Senate Ethics Committee in 2011 in its investigation.

In early 2008, Douglas Hampton confronted Ensign about the affair. Ensign contacted political and corporate supporters in Nevada, seeking work for Hampton. Within the next few months, Ensign arranged for Hampton to join a political consulting firm in Nevada and lined up several corporations who had been Ensign campaign donors as lobbying clients for Hampton. Under federal law senior aides such as Hampton are prohibited from lobbying the Senate for a year after leaving their posts. Hampton later said he and Ensign were aware of the lobbying restriction but chose to ignore it. Cynthia Hampton also lost her job with Ensign's PAC in May 2008.

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