CNN’s Dana Bash and producer Ted Barrett waited outside embattled Sen. John Ensign’s (R-NV) office in Washington today and asked him about a New York Times report that he flouted a lobbying ban by directing his staff to have contact with Doug Hampton — his former mistress’s husband — in regard to Hampton’s lobbying work. Ensign also tried to help get Hampton a job after the affair had been discovered. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) confirmed on Sunday that the Senate Ethics Committee, which she chairs, has begun “a preliminary investigation” of Ensign.
Confronted by the CNN team today, Ensign denied that he’d violated ethics rules.
“You can just see our statements on that,” he said. “I think it’s pretty clear. I said in the past I recommended him for jobs, just like I recommended a lot of people. But we absolutely did nothing except for comply exactly with what the ethics laws and the ethics rules of the Senate state. We were very careful.”
Bash asked Ensign if he’d considered resigning.
“I am focused on doing my work,” he said. “I’m gonna continue to focus on doing my work.”
Ensign also said that he and his office “will cooperate with any official inquiries.”
When asked about a meeting with a Nevada airline which the Times reported Ensign had helped Hampton get a lobbying contract with, Ensign said “all of these things will come out at their due time. But there’s no question, we complied with all of the ethics rules.”
As the group waited at an intersection that the CNN team had followed Ensign to, Ensign insisted that rules allow that “you can talk to anybody.”
“But not about clients, and not about matters that they’re lobbying for,” Barrett shot back.
“I never met with that captain about any of that stuff,” Ensign said.
Barrett: “But your staff did.”
It’s not entirely clear who that “captain” is, but we have a feeling Ensign was referring to airline CEO Maurice Gallagher — a supporter and major contributor of the Senator’s.
We’ll have video up shortly.
Late Update: Here’s the video.
Late Late Update: It also occurs to us that the “captain” might be Hampton. Not that we’re aware of him ever achieving that rank or title — but in the context of the conversation, it could be that Ensign was referring to Hampton. Though why he’d call him the “captain,” I don’t know.
