Ethics Panel Launches Ensign Probe
The Hill reports:
The Senate ethics committee announced Tuesday that it has begun an investigation of Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who has been accused of using his position to improperly help a former aide.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Ethics, and Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), the ranking GOP member, announced the appointment of Carol Elder Bruce to serve as special counsel for the “preliminary inquiry."
“The purpose of a preliminary inquiry is to determine whether there is substantial credible evidence that a violation within the Committee’s jurisdiction has occurred,” the committee announced in a public statement.
Bruce is a partner in the Washington office of K&L Gates LLP, where she focuses on white-collar criminal defense, civil litigation and congressional investigations.
News of the probe may complicate Ensign’s bid for re-election in 2012.
Ensign has pledged to run despite the scandal that enveloped him in 2009 after it emerged that he had an affair with the wife of a one-time close friend and senior aide, Doug Hampton.
Click here to read more.
