John Ensign: The Naughty Bits

Our guest columnist is in desperate need of a cold shower.

The Hamptons moved to Las Vegas in 2004. According to Ms. Hampton, it “was their [Doug and Senator Ensign’s] dream to always live by each other.” Further, per Ms. Hampton, Senator Ensign and Mr. Hampton sought to facilitate a relationship between their families to “walk through life together,” a term used by the [C Street] International Foundation spiritual advisors to Senator Ensign…

In November 2007, the Hampton home in Summerlin, Nevada was burglarized during the daytime. Although they were in Nevada at the time, none of the Hampton family members were home at the time of the incident. The burglars entered the home by breaking into the downstairs guest bathroom, and they stole electronics and jewelry. When Mr. Hampton came home, he saw that the front door to the home was left open, and suspected that something had occurred. Ms. Hampton was afraid to stay in the home, and the Ensigns offered to let the Hamptons stay in their home until the door was repaired and Ms. Hampton felt safe to return to the home. Senator Ensign said “well, you guys are going to have to come and stay with me.”

The extramarital affair between Senator Ensign and Ms. Hampton began after the Hamptons moved into the Ensigns’ home following the burglary…

Senator Ensign initiated the affair by contacting Ms. Hampton and asking her to meet with him. She asked Senator Ensign if he “lost [his] mind,” and he replied “yes.” Senator Ensign was very persistent and relentless in pursuing Ms. Hampton. According to Ms. Hampton, Senator Ensign “just [wouldn’t] stop,” and “kept calling and calling,” and “would never take no for an answer.”

Ms. Hampton was in a vulnerable emotional state and a “mess” at the time Senator Ensign was pursuing her, as her home had been burglarized, a family member was undergoing medical treatment, and Mr. Hampton’s travel schedule back and forth to Washington gave them little time to be together. Ms. Hampton ultimately yielded to Senator Ensign’s pleas. Senator Ensign and Ms. Hampton met “periodically on the weekends” during the affair…

Mr. Hampton found out about the affair on December 23, 2007, while he and his wife were on the way to the airport to pick up their son for the holidays. Senator Ensign was in a separate car on the way to the airport to greet the Hamptons’ son as well. While waiting in his car as Ms. Hampton went to pick up their son’s girlfriend from her home on the way to the airport, Mr. Hampton saw that his wife left her cell phone in the car and he viewed a text message from Senator Ensign to Ms. Hampton that made clear an affair was occurring. Press reports indicate the text message stated “How wonderful it is … Scared, but excited.”

When Ms. Hampton came back to the car, Mr. Hampton stated “I know what you and John are doing.” Mr. Hampton then called Senator Ensign and said that he knew what was happening. Senator Ensign did not inform Darlene Ensign at the time. When the cars were parked in the airport parking lot, Mr. Hampton jumped out of his car and chased Senator Ensign in the airport parking lot. Ms. Hampton went into the airport and sat there for “hours.” Ms. Hampton later took a taxi back to her home. Once she was home, Mr. Hampton sought to get the couples together to talk about what occurred.

On December 24, 2007, the Hamptons went to the Ensigns’ home, and the four adults met in Senator Ensign’s home office. Both Senator Ensign and Ms. Hampton stated that the affair would stop, and Senator Ensign wept and apologized. The Ensigns and Hamptons then had a meeting with their children. The families then celebrated Christmas together. According to Ms. Hampton, had Senator Ensign stopped pursuing her at that time, as he had committed to do before both families, the affair would have ended at that time.

In January 2008, Senator Ensign began texting Ms. Hampton again, and the affair resumed. Ms. Hampton was very despondent during this time frame. Senator Ensign gave Ms. Hampton $3,000 in cash to purchase items for herself and to use for hotel rooms in Las Vegas that Ms. Hampton reserved in her name at his request for their clandestine meetings, because “it always had to be under my name, it could never be under his name.”

Senator Ensign told Ms. Hampton on more than one occasion that he wanted to marry her. Senator Ensign told Ms. Hampton that he wanted to marry her while they attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

During a Congressional Delegation trip (a “CODEL”) to Iraq and Afghanistan from February 7, 2008 to February 12, 2008, Senator Ensign repeatedly contacted Ms. Hampton. Telephone bills from the calls she received from Senator Ensign while he was on the CODEL totaled nearly $1,000. Senator Ensign gave Ms. Hampton money to pay the telephone bill, and Ms. Hampton obtained a cashier’s check to make the payment. Mr. Hampton, who was also on the trip, became aware of the continued contact between Senator Ensign and Ms. Hampton. He asked to borrow Senator Ensign’s cell phone to call Ms. Hampton, and Senator Ensign scrolled to a name listing for “Aunt Judy” rather than Ms. Hampton’s real name. The call history on the phone also disclosed to Mr. Hampton that the affair was continuing.

When Mr. Hampton returned from the CODEL trip, he immediately sought the assistance of Tim Coe, Senator Ensign’s long-time spiritual advisor, to assist with ending the affair. Mr. Coe recommended that they bring in a “higher authority, someone much bigger than me,” and approached Senator Tom Coburn. Senator Coburn was also a resident of the C Street Center, and was a close spiritual and personal confidant to Tim Coe and to Senator Ensign…

At that confrontation, Senator Ensign agreed to write what appeared to be a sincerely apologetic letter to Ms. Hampton ending the affair. Senator Ensign wrote the letter, and Mr. Sherman mailed it from a Federal Express mailing facility. After it was mailed, Senator Ensign immediately called Ms. Hampton to alert her about the confrontation and to tell her to disregard the letter, which he had written only for the benefit of the men who were confronting him.

On February 16, 2008, two days after the intervention, Tim Coe received a call from Doug Hampton. Mr. Hampton was looking for the Senator to have him sign some documents for the NRSC, and saw his car and Ms. Hampton’s car parked in a parking lot of a hotel close to their Summerlin neighborhood. Mr. Coe “pleaded with him [Hampton] to go home.” Mr. Coe called Senator Ensign and stated “I know exactly where you are. I know exactly what you are doing. Put your pants on and go home.” Senator Ensign initially said he would not leave the hotel room, telling Mr. Coe “I can’t, I love her [Ms. Hampton].” Senator Ensign ultimately agreed to leave the hotel. After he left the hotel, Senator Ensign told Mr. Coe that he wanted to marry Ms. Hampton.

The following day, February 17, 2008, Mr. and Ms. Hampton went to Senator Ensign’s home early in the morning to talk about the affair. Darlene Ensign was in California at the time with her daughter. Mr. Hampton wanted the affair to stop, and wanted “things to go back to how they were.” It was “not a good meeting” because Senator Ensign stated that he was in love with Ms. Hampton and wanted to marry her and that Doug could not work for him any longer. According to Ms. Hampton, the Senator subsequently told her that her husband had to leave the Senate office because he did not want Doug to be aware of the Senator’s schedule, and that Senator Ensign would place fictitious events on his schedule so he could meet with Ms. Hampton…

The affair continued after the February 17, 2008 meeting in the Ensign home and after Senator Ensign moved out of his home to live with his parents. Senator Ensign gave Ms. Hampton money to purchase two new cellular phones to be used exclusively so that they could communicate without detection. Records from these phones were retrieved and showed numerous text messages from Senator Ensign to Ms. Hampton. Specifically, 76 text messages were exchanged between Senator Ensign and Ms. Hampton from March 7, 2008 to March 10, 2008. Darlene Ensign became aware of these new phones, and they were disconnected. Senator Ensign wanted to buy two more phones, but Ms. Hampton declined because she did not want the contact to continue.

Senator Ensign also created email accounts with fictitious names in order to email Ms. Hampton, including “fredschwartz72@yahoo.com,” “mariaschwartz@yahoo.com,” and “maryholland82@yahoo.com.” Senator Ensign called Ms. Hampton multiple times during this period from various locations at the Capitol, the Senate gym, and from New York while on a fund-raising trip…

Senator Ensign sent Ms. Hampton an email on April 1, 2008 asking whether “it is possible to talk,” and stated it “concerns your job and a few loose ends.” Ms. Hampton was “shaking” when she got the email, and called Senator Ensign because she believed it was about her job, which he knew she was fearful of losing. When she called, Senator Ensign stated that “he missed me and wanted to still see me,” thus using Ms. Hampton’s job as a ruse to speak with her and confess further feelings to her. Ms. Hampton was upset, but believed that “honestly in the back of my mind, I just thought John would never hurt our family.”

According to Ms. Hampton, the affair continued very sporadically, with one meeting in June and one in July 2008 for a “very short visit.” Ms. Hampton felt that she was not a healthy person at that time, and her attitude during these meetings was that “my life is ruined, so whatever,” and that she agreed to see the Senator only because his persistence wore her down. Although Ms. Hampton continually told Senator Ensign to stop contacting her, he ignored her wishes. This was frustrating to her because “if he would have just left me alone, it would have ended back in December.” Ms. Hampton sent Senator Ensign an email in August 2008 imploring him to stop contacting her because her “life and family is in shambles.” Ms. Hampton never heard from Senator Ensign again. Ms. Hampton saw Senator Ensign at her children’s graduation from high school in 2008, but has not seen him since that event.

In addition to filing for divorce, Ms. Hampton recently filed for bankruptcy and is presently moving out of California to work for a Christian organization.

Report of the Preliminary Inquiry [Senate Ethics Committee, PDF]