trust and power, don t abuse it. don t misuse it. because people can get hurt. very, very hurt. joining me now is melanie sloan, executive director of citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. melanie, thank you for joining me tonight. thanks for having me. on page 47 of the senate ethics committee report, section a, you are given full credit for starting this investigation by filing a complaint that says on june 16, 2009, senator ensign held a public press conference in which he admitted he had an extramarital affair with a member of his staff, later identified as ms. hampton. on june 24, 2009, the committee received a request for investigation of senator john ensign from crew. the request alleged that senator ensign s conduct with cynthia
laws. i didn t do any of those things. resigning would be admitting guilt. resigning would be admitting guilt. that s what he said last month. now he s resigning. joining us now is the man who broke the news this evening, columnist for the las vegas sun and host of face-to-face with john rolston. congratulations on the scoop, and thanks for being here tonight, john. nice to be back with you, rachel. why is he resigning now? why not six weeks ago when he announced his retirement? well, rachel, as i have said many times, his political career was over on june 16, 2009, and you showed some of that video. he seemed to be the only one who did not know that. and he had to be dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way, from the moment he made that announcement. you know a lot of people wanted him out of there. it took the ethics committee, and i have just confirmed this right before coming on here, to vote this week secretly as they