F.E.C. Rejected Counsel With Its Vote on Senator

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
NYT

WASHINGTON — When the Federal Election Commission voted last month to close an investigation into a $96,000 payment to Senator John Ensign’s former lover, it overrode the findings of its own staff lawyers, documents made public Monday showed.

Lawyers at the F.E.C. counsel’s office said in a confidential report in March that Mr. Ensign’s parents and his campaign treasurer appeared to have violated campaign finance law when the parents made the payment to the family of the mistress, Cynthia Hampton, who worked for his campaign.

The staff lawyers said there was enough evidence to warrant a full investigation. With many questions still unanswered, the lawyers wrote, “we need to investigate the circumstances of this payment.”

But the commission rejected that recommendation by a vote of 5 to 0 on Nov. 19. It was not known until the report was made public Monday that the commission voted against its lawyers.

(More here.)