Ensign family gave $100k to mistress's family

Surprise, suprise. John Ensign's parents paid his mistress's family $100K in what looks an awful lot like hush money:

Sen. John Ensign's attorney acknowledged Thursday that the Nevada Republican's parents paid nearly $100,000 to the family of his mistress after she and her husband left his staff in April 2008.

In a statement from Paul Coggins, Ensign's attorney, said that the senator gave Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton and their two children gifts worth $96,000 and that "each gift was limited to $12,000."

"The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts," Coggins said.

Whether or not the gifts were legal, Ensign stood to benefit by having his parents make them because it kept his tax records clean in the event that he ever had to disclose them (for example, in a presidential campaign).