Chip Pickering's "Family" affair

The Family -- a secretive and politically powerful religious group based in Washington -- has been linked to a third case of marital infidelity, raising fresh questions about its claims of being a Christian fellowship deserving of tax-free status.



CQ Politics reports that an alienation of affection lawsuit filed this week by Leisha Jane Pickering, the estranged wife of former U.S. Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. of Mississippi, alleges that he had an extramarital affair with a former college girlfriend while he lived at the group's house at 133 C Street -- with some of the "wrongful conduct" occurring inside the building.

Pickering is the third member of The Family to become embroiled in a scandal over an affair recently. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a former Republican congressman, and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) also admitted to adultery in recent weeks. Ensign lived at The Family's C Street house, while Sanford said in his press conference confessing to the affair that he spent time there.

Pickering, who represented Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District from 1996 until he retired this year, filed for divorce in 2008. According to CQ Politics:

Pickering was once seen as the natural successor to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who retired in the 110th Congress. But the lawsuit alleges that Pickering turned down an offer by Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., to take Lott's seat and instead retired from the House this year because his mistress gave him an ultimatum: either continue in Congress without her or leave Congress to be with her.

As we reported earlier this month, The Family was founded in the 1930s by a Norwegian immigrant and itinerant minister interested in serving the powerful and opposing the New Deal. Today the group is incorporated as a tax-free 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating under the name The Fellowship Foundation.

It maintains a three-story, $1.1 million red brick townhouse on C Street -- a former convent that now houses members of Congress. Other lawmakers who have rented rooms there, some at below-market rates, are Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

Pickering, who has five sons with Leisha, is a former Southern Baptist missionary. He appeared as himself in the 2006 Sacha Baron Cohen film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," attending an emotional Pentecostal service where the congregation cheered against the teaching of evolution.