John Ensign

DOJ Access To Ensign Emails Could Determine His Legal Fate

Susan Crabtree | May 27, 2011, 4:40PM

Former Sen. John Ensign's (R-NV) legal fate may hinge on a gray area of the law governing the separation-of-powers between the legislative and judicial branches of government.

The Senate Ethics Committee's decision to hand over all of its evidence in the case against Ensign to the Justice Department - which includes hundreds of e-mails as Reuters' Murray Waas reported Thursday -- has raised new questions about the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution and whether it can prevent DOJ prosecutors from using those e-mails and other documents obtained in the panel's investigation that ended the Nevada Republican's once promising political career.

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John Ensign

The Last Senate Expulsion: 1862 (With Some Close Calls Since)

Eric Kleefeld | May 12, 2011, 3:40PM

With the news that the Senate Ethics Committee would likely have recommended the expulsion of former Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who resigned last week, it's worth asking the question: When was the last time a senator was actually expelled?

The last House expulsion was in 2002, with the Senate expelling Rep. James Traficant (D-OH) after he was convicted on corruption charges, but the last Senate expulsion was much further back. As the Senate historian's office told TPM, the last time a Senator was expelled was in 1862, when Sen. Jesse Bright (D-IN) was expelled for supporting the Confederacy. Indeed, a total of 15 senators were expelled for that reason in the early years of the Civil War, with Bright being the last -- and also the only one from a non-Confederate and non-border state.

On other rare occasions, as in the case of Ensign, senators who faced likely expulsion would instead resign before such a vote would be taken. In recent history, Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) resigned in 1995 after the the Ethics Committee recommended expulsion following an investigation into alleged sexual abuse of female former staffers. In 1982, Sen. Harrison Williams (D-NJ) resigned after he had been convicted of bribery the previous year, as a result of an FBI sting, and efforts to appeal the verdict had failed.

Here's what got Bright expelled, courtesy of the Senate's history web site:

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John Ensign

Senate Ethics Refers Ensign Case to DOJ, FEC

Susan Crabtree | May 12, 2011, 2:34PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

The Senate Ethics Committee has uncovered extensive evidence that former Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and others broke U.S. law by trying to cover up an affair Ensign had with a campaign aide, the wife of one of his top Senate staffers.

The panel has forwarded the evidence of criminal activities to the Department of Justice for further investigation, which it is required to do in any investigation that turns up evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who chairs the ethics panel, and Johnny Isakson (R-GA), said in letters to the DOJ and FEC released Thursday along with a final report from a special prosecutor handling the case.

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