Senate Ethics Panel refers criminal case against Sen. John Ensign to the DOJ

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ah, and he thought that by resigning from the Senate he could avoid the Senate Ethics Committee from holding him accountable. Senate ethics committee: Ensign violated federal laws – The Washington Post:

The Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday declared that it has “substantial and credible evidence” that former senator John Ensign broke federal laws in his effort to cover up an extramarital affair he had with a political aide, referring its case to the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission.

In a highly unusual public rebuke, the bipartisan committee presented its case on the Senate floor, announcing it had voted unanimously to release its findings and request the Justice Department re-start a criminal investigation into the Nevada Republican’s actions.

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Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), reading from a report of the special counsel hired to handle the investigation, said that the evidence against Ensign was “substantial enough to warrant the consideration of expulsion” had he not resigned.

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The committee could not formally rebuke Ensign, because it lost its jurisdiction in the case once he left the Senate.

Boxer and Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), the ranking Republican on the evenly divided six-member committee, issued a 75-page report that included eight counts of either legal violations or internal Senate rules violations. The most prominent charges were that Ensign broke federal “cooling-off” laws when he aided his mistress’s husband, Doug Hampton, in gaining lobbying employment after Ensign dismissed both Hamptons from his political and legislative offices.

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The ethics report found that the $96,000 payments to the Hamptons and their children were not gifts, but actually were severance payments that violated federal campaign finance laws. In addition, the committee alleged that Ensign engaged in “potential obstruction of justice” in the case.

Now here is my question: If Sen. Ensign violated the law, why is Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) not also under an ethics investigation for his role in this deal? (see pp. 37-38 of the ethics report):

Before the affair became public, Doug Hampton and Ensign tried to come to an additional seven-figure settlement, which was being negotiated by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a close friend of Ensign’s and a former roommate in a Capitol Hill townhouse.

Those talks fell apart…

Yeah, well that's still an attempted commission of a crime, and a conspiracy to commit a crime at a minimum. Coburn did not have to successfully complete the primary offense. Why is Sen. Tom Coburn — and possibly other members of Congress who lived at the C Street House who may have had knowledge or involvement, not also under an ethics investigation? Sex and power inside "the C Street House" - Salon.com. Inquiring minds want to know.

Read the 75 page ethics report here. Senate ethics report on John Ensign (document reader) or here Original Document (PDF).