Ensign probe records sought

WASHINGTON -- A government watchdog group has formally requested that federal investigators and prosecutors make public their recently concluded investigation of Nevada Sen. John Ensign.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent letters to the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorneys executive office seeking all records that would answer why they did not pursue criminal charges against Ensign.

"Based on what is in the public record? Absolutely, there appears to be clear violations of the law. So, (the Justice Department decision) is troubling," CREW Chief Counsel Anne Weismann said Tuesday.

The group requested all records related to the investigation under the Freedom of Information Act. In the letters, the non-profit group cites several Las Vegas Review-Journal articles that detailed the yearlong investigation.

Jennifer Cooper, a spokeswoman for Ensign, said the senator has "long stated that he acted in accordance with the law and is pleased that the Department of Justice is no longer targeting him in its investigation."

The Justice Department informed Ensign last month that it has no plans to charge him with crimes related to the fallout from an extramarital affair with his campaign treasurer. However, he remains under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee over whether he broke ethics rules or laws in an attempt to hide the affair with Cindy Hampton, his former campaign treasurer and the wife of Doug Hampton, a longtime friend who came to Washington to become his top administrative assistant.

Wiesmann is pessimistic that the Justice Department will voluntarily release any documents regarding the investigation.

"I think we are going to have a fight on our hands," she said.

The Justice Department, Wiesmann claimed, has "inexplicably refused" to process similar requests for records on the department's investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and of Paul Magliocchetti, founder of the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group Inc.

"We hope they won't but we expect they will have the same response" with the Ensign request, she said.

Wiesmann complained in a letter last month to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. that record requests have been "met with resistance and stonewalling."

The group has gone to court and succeeded in getting some records. In October 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered release of a portion of FBI notes from a 2004 interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. The group sought the document to shed some light on Cheney's role in outing former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

The Justice Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the request for Ensign documents.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Peter Urban at purban@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.