Senator Ensign Ethics Investigation Expected: Justice Department

Let's see if the U.S. government has the decency to punish a clear case of political corruption, and abuse of power.

The Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are expected to conduct preliminary inquiries into whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as part of an effort to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide, current and former officials said Friday.

“Whenever allegations of improper conduct are brought to the attention of Senate Ethics Committee, we open a preliminary inquiry,” said Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the committee.

The inquiries will most likely examine whether Mr. Ensign, a Nevada Republican, or Douglas Hampton, his one-time administrative assistant, broke the law after Mr. Hampton, immediately upon leaving his Congressional job last year, began to lobby Mr. Ensign’s office. Mr. Hampton, as a senior aide, was subject to a one-year lobbying ban, lawyers who specialize in ethics law said.

“It is difficult for me to imagine they would not look into it,” said Kenneth A. Gross, a former associate general counsel at the Federal Election Commission. As a lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Mr. Gross has represented Washington officials in ethics investigations.

Mr. Ensign could be legally at risk if he knew that Mr. Hampton was violating the one-year ban, or if he actually directed him to do so, as Mr. Hampton has said, ethics lawyers said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Ensign, Rebecca Fisher, said he would not resist any investigation. “He plans to cooperate with any official inquiries,” Ms. Fisher said, adding that the senator for now is “focused on working for his constituents in Nevada.”

Mr. Hampton and his lawyer said they welcomed the inquiry — even though Mr. Hampton appears to face the greatest legal jeopardy. “There are real questions as to whether rules and laws were violated as a result of Senator Ensign trying to cover up the affair,” said Daniel J. Albregts, Mr. Hampton’s lawyer.

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics had already started a preliminary review in response to a complaint it received shortly after the affair became public in June.

The complaint that initiated this inquiry focused on whether Mr. Ensign improperly used campaign money in April 2008 to make a $96,000 severance payment to Mr. Hampton and his wife, Cynthia Hampton, who once was treasurer of Mr. Ensign’s campaign. At that time, Mr. Hampton and his wife, who was still having an affair with the senator, were forced out of their jobs.

So far, no evidence has surfaced that the money for this payment came from the government or from campaign money. But the new accusations, detailed in an article that appeared Friday in The New York Times, appear to be a more serious threat to Mr. Hampton and Mr. Ensign, ethics lawyers said.

Mr. Ensign, after requests from Mr. Hampton, appealed to officials at the Department of Interior and the Department of Transportation to take up issues raised by Mr. Hampton’s lobbying clients, NV Energy, a Nevada power company, and Allegiant Air, an airline based in Las Vegas.

Mr. Ensign has said he took these actions without regard to the lobbying by Mr. Hampton.

Officials at the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined comment on the matter. But law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the F.B.I. was likely to open a preliminary investigation into the new accusations to determine whether a full investigation was warranted.