Why Sen. Ensign should be worried about possible indictment

Why Sen. Ensign should be worried about possible indictment

By Jon Ralston (contact)

Sunday, April 4, 2010 | 2 a.m.


In the federal penal code, it is known as “structuring.”

And it is a word Sen. John Ensign should remember because it is very likely to be on any indictment with his name on it.

That’s what I am told by a reliable source familiar with the deliberations occurring inside the Justice Department as federal authorities in Washington try to do with Ensign what they could not do with former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens: Get their man. Or, because they had Stevens and then lost him because of misconduct, Justice wants to make sure if it goes to the next step with Ensign, the charges stick.

Structuring is a broad term that refers to the crime of creating financial transactions to evade reporting requirements — for example, a $96,000 payment to your mistress laundered through a trust controlled by your parents and calling it a “gift” instead of what it obviously was: a severance payment that had to be reported.

That the feds are looking at structuring as a possible crime will not surprise many old hands who have watched the sordid Ensign saga play out, morphing from a fairly grotesque he-slept-with-his-best-friend’s-wife-who-was-also-his-wife’s-best-friend story to a fantastically creepy tale of a senator trying to keep the cuckolded husband quiet by any means necessary, including, perhaps, structuring transactions with businesses in exchange for campaign contributions.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/04/why-sen-ensign-should-be-worried-about-possible-in/

or so his name was being bandied about as a Republican presidential candidate.

His office better hold off on that order for buttons and bumperstickers.

This should be fun to watch. Hope he takes down some FAMILY friends with him...Coburn??? :popcorn:

I wonder what Ensign's thoughts on Bill and Monica were?

You ask, "I wonder what Ensign's thoughts on Bill and Monica were?"

Here's the relevant passage from :

In 1998, after President Bill Clinton admitted to having committed adultery with Monica Lewinsky, Ensign called on him to resign, saying, "He has no credibility left."

The statement is sourced to in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

For good measure, the Wikipedia article goes on to quote Ensign explaining his opposition to recognizing same-sex marriage: "Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded."

I assume, however, that your question was rhetorical. By now, no one really needs any research to figure out that Republicans will be hypocrites through and through.