Friday, June 19, 2009

Spouse of Ensign’s mistress sought help in letter to Fox News

Husband’s account of how wife’s affair with Ensign ‘ruined our lives and careers’ comes to light

Las Vegas Sun - In a letter dated five days before Sen. John Ensign’s public confession of an extramarital affair, Doug Hampton pleaded to a national Fox News anchorwoman for help in exposing the senator’s “heinous conduct and pursuit” of Hampton’s wife.

Hours before the Sun obtained an unsigned copy of the letter, Ensign’s spokesman said the senator disclosed the affair with Cynthia Hampton because her husband had approached “a major television news channel before Tuesday,” the day Ensign admitted the affair. “We learned of this fact before the news conference,” the spokesman noted in an e-mail.



In his letter, Hampton, a former top administrative aide in Ensign’s Capitol Hill office, said: “The actions of Senator Ensign have ruined our lives and careers and left my family in shambles. We have lost significant income, suffered indescribable pain and emotional suffering. We find ourselves today with an overwhelming loss of relationships, career opportunities and hope for recovery. Our pursuit of justice continues to place me and my family in harm’s way as we fear for our well being.”

Hampton could not be reached for comment, and his Las Vegas lawyer, Daniel Albregts, declined to comment on the letter.

“We are not commenting on any aspect of the case at the present time,” he said.

The letter presented for the first time Doug Hampton’s view of what took place. It was addressed to Megyn Kelly at Fox News’ corporate office in New York. Kelly is the co-host of Fox News Channel’s “American Newsroom.” She also appears regularly on the “O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly,” according to the network’s Web site.

Kelly could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Reached by e-mail late Thursday, Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola would not comment on the letter and wouldn’t say whether the senator was aware of it.

So among the key questions that remain unanswered are:

— Did Fox News receive the letter, and if the network did, what did it do with the information?

— How did Ensign learn that Hampton had “approached a major television news channel”?

In the letter, Hampton states that he wanted “to establish the framework for discussion and provide enough information to warrant a meeting with you (Kelly) and Fox News.” He said he had “great respect” for Fox News and was contacting Kelly because she is a lawyer and the story had several legal elements to it.......

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