WASHINGTON — Senator John Ensign’s resignation letter allows him to leave office just one day before he was to have to answer questions under oath about whether a $96,000 payment to the family of his former lover was illegal and designed to keep the affair from becoming public, said people familiar with an investigation of Ensign’s activities.
That testimony was the final step as Senate investigators prepared for what were almost certain to be ethics charges against Ensign, a Nevada Republican.
In the letter, issued late Thursday, Ensign acknowledged that he was stepping down to avoid further scrutiny — hoping that his departure would mean the end of any further questions about his affair with Cynthia Hampton, who is the wife of his former senior aide, Douglas Hampton.
But officials said the leaders of the Ethics Committee decided to issue a statement that details evidence uncovered in a 22-month investigation.
— Associated Press
Tenn. man who threatened congressman is sentenced AKRON, Ohio — A Tennessee man has received four months in prison for threatening an Ohio congressman during last year’s heated health care debate.
A federal judge in Akron, Ohio, sentenced James Schmidlin of Cleveland, Tenn., yesterday. Schmidlin, 40, also faces three years of probation.
He was convicted in December of making a March 2010 phone call to the office of Representative John Boccieri threatening to burn down the Democrat’s house.
— Associated Press 
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