NBC takes look at Gibbons allegations
In one of the photos, Gov. Jim Gibbons has a white cloth napkin tied pirate-style around his head. He’s wearing a medallion on a long chain around his neck and holding a large glass of wine.
In another, he’s got one arm around a pretty blonde and is using the other to put “bunny ears” behind another woman’s head.
These goofy shots were the main revelation in an investigative report aired by NBC on Friday that explored the corruption allegations the FBI is investigating. They were taken on the infamous May 2005 Caribbean cruise hosted by Gibbons’ friend Warren Trepp, the Lake Tahoe businessman who alleged to have given Gibbons, then a congressman, hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Trepp secure federal contracts.
Asked Friday whether he was embarrassed by the photographs, Gibbons said, “If we all couldn’t have a good time in life, it would be pretty darn boring.”
Gibbons called the allegations by Trepp’s former partner, Dennis Montgomery, “an old story that has already been addressed.”
Montgomery told NBC, which aired reports on Friday morning’s “Today” show, the “Nightly News” program and on the MSNBC cable news channel, that he witnessed Trepp giving cash to Gibbons on two different occasions.
On the cruise, he said, he saw Trepp give Gibbons “close to $100,000” in cash and casino chips. On another occasion, in the offices of Trepp’s company, Montgomery says he saw Trepp take “two $50,000 bundles” out of his desk, which Gibbons then took in a briefcase.
Gibbons, Trepp and their lawyers have called Montgomery, who is suing Trepp, a disgruntled former employee with an ax to grind. Asked why he should be believed, Montgomery told NBC, “Because I know what happened for the last five years, and I can prove it.”
SMOKING ON SCREEN
John Ensign took up smoking for a bit when he was 10 years old, inspired by television commercials declaring that Tareyton smokers “would rather fight than switch.”
Ensign grew up to become a U.S. senator, but he didn’t forget the lure of the cigarette come-ons.
“For whatever reason, my friends and I thought that was cool, and so we started smoking, and we started smoking Tareytons,” Ensign recalled at a 2004 Senate hearing about the impact of smoking in the movies.
One of Ensign’s causes has been to discourage romantic media portrayals of smoking. And so he applauded the announcement on Thursday by the Motion Picture Association of America that a movie’s rating will hinge in part on how it depicts adult smokers. Underage smoking already is taken into consideration.
Ensign was especially pleased that the industry seemed to act on its own, without legislation or regulation from Congress.
“Hollywood has recognized its responsibility to our children,” said Ensign, who has three kids. “Studies have shown that children exposed to smoking are far more likely to begin smoking.”
TAINTED CASH
Two Nevada Republicans say they will return contributions from an Alaska executive indicted in a corruption scandal last week.
Bill Allen, CEO of Anchorage-based oil services company VECO Corp., pleaded guilty last week to bribing state legislators in Alaska and illegally reimbursing company executives for political contributions.
He gave $2,000 to Ensign in 2005 and $500 to Rep. Jon Porter in 2004. Now Ensign and Porter both say they will shed that money.
Ensign is “in the process of returning that to a charity,” spokesman Tory Mazzola said. He said the charity was yet to be selected.
Porter will donate the $500 from Allen to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children in Boulder City, spokesman Matt Leffingwell said last week.
However, Porter doesn’t plan to return $500 from VECO President Peter Leathard because Leathard hasn’t been implicated in criminal activity, Leffingwell said.
Gov. Jim Gibbons also received a contribution from Allen. In October 1996, Allen gave $500 to Gibbons’ first campaign for Congress.
Meanwhile, Ensign on May 7 hosted a fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the Miami-area home of a woman who faces deportation proceedings for entering the United States on a fraudulent passport more than 10 years ago.
A spokeswoman for the committee to re-elect Republican senators, which Ensign chairs, confirmed Friday that Ensign attended the fundraiser at the home of developer Wayne Rosen and his wife, Eve Rosen.
The Miami Herald reported last week that the former Evelyn Runciman is facing deportation proceedings based on having pleaded guilty in 1997 to passport fraud.
Runciman is the ex-wife of an accused Cuban crime boss, Jose M. Battle Sr. She was charged as a member of the “Cuban Mafia” in 2004, but the charges were dropped.
Asked whether there was a conflict between Ensign’s stance against illegal immigration and his association with an admitted immigration cheat, NRSC spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher said the committee was “looking into the situation” to verify the facts reported by the Herald.
Fisher noted that Eve Rosen was not a contributor to the committee. Wayne Rosen has contributed hundreds of thousands to mostly Republican candidates, including Porter.
Leffingwell said Porter would keep Wayne Rosen’s $1,148. “He is a legal, law-abiding citizen who has not been accused of any wrongdoing,” he said.
While Ensign was attending the fundraiser, the Senate was voting on an amendment dealing with the reimportation of prescription drugs.
Ensign missed the vote on the amendment by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. It requires that the Department of Health and Human Services certify to the safety and cost savings of medications shipped from Canada and other countries.
The amendment passed 49-40, effectively gutting a competing bill that would permit consumers to order prescription drugs from Canada and allow for commercial shipments from Canada and European nations, where U.S. manufactured medications are priced lower.
Supporters contend the reimports could save $10 billion over 10 years, but the Department of Health and Human Services has said it cannot certify their safety.
Ensign spokesman Mazzola said the Nevadan’s absence did not affect the outcome of the vote. He said Ensign has supported the Cochran amendment when it has come up in previous years.
Mazzola said Ensign usually schedules trips around Senate votes, and he did not know what happened in this case.
“As often as possible, these things are avoided,” Mazzola said.
Florida Democrats told the Herald they were happy to see Ensign.
“We appreciate Senator Ensign’s attempts to emphasize the hard work undocumented aliens do in America, like throwing fundraisers for the GOP,” said Joe Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
Contact political reporter Molly Ball at 387-2919 or MBall@reviewjournal.com.
