Update: Roll Call reports that Ensign will announce his retirement at today’s press event.
Embattled Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) will hold a press conference today at 3 PM ET in order to discuss his “political future,” according to a report by local station KSNV. He is up for re-election in 2012 and a number of candidates from both parties have been discussed by observers as possible opponents in the primary and general election.
The junior Senator from Nevada has been caught in a long-running scandal concerning an affair with a married staffer and questions surrounding whether he helped the husband of the aide in question, also a staffer, get a lobbying job after he discovered their relationship. While Ensign says the Department of Justice is no longer investigating the issue, the Senate Ethics Committee is still looking into the issue.
