WASHINGTON-Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), one of the House GOP leaders caught on a radio scanner last December strategizing how House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) could sidestep congressional ethics sanctions, said last week he turned down settlement offers from intermediaries of the Democratic congressman suspected of leaking the contents of that cellular phone conference call to the media.
Boehner, angry about how the Justice Department is handling the investigation, said he plans to sue Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and possibly others for allegedly divulging transcripts of the call to the press while serving as ranking minority member of the House ethics panel investigating Gingrich.
Even though Gingrich and other House GOP lawmakers were using wireline phones, all the participants were overheard by a Florida couple, John and Alice Martin, because Boehner was using his cellular phone.
After the incident received national media play in January, McDermott stepped down from the committee.
Meanwhile, the Martins, self-described political junkies with Democratic ties who recorded the GOP skull session from their radio scanner and forwarded the information to lawmakers, pleaded guilty to breaking the electronic privacy law and paid $500 each in fines. They also agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.
Congress, given the massive media exposure of the Gingrich case and the huge financial losses resulting from wireless phone fraud, is moving forward to tighten wireless privacy laws and cloning laws.
Dave Schnittger, a spokesman for Boehner, said Boehner expects to hear shortly from the ethics committee and the Federal Election Commission whether the Ohio lawmaker can use campaign funds to underwrite legal expenses of a civil suit.
McDermott press spokeswoman Jennifer Crider declined comment, but McDermott attorney Barry Levine vehemently denied that a plea bargain was proposed.
“It is completely and utterly false, shameful and scurrilous,” said Levine, a Washington, D.C., lawyer. Levine would not comment on whether McDermott received and forwarded the contents of the GOP call to the media.
Schnittger, who refused to name the third parties that supposedly made settlement overtures to Boehner, said the deal would have McDermott pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and accepting a reprimand from the House.
The Washington Times, citing unnamed sources, suggested Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) was one of the go-betweens who floated a McDermott settlement.
But Levine said Boehner is not in a position to accept or reject a settlement of a federal investigation. In addition, Levine said the plea agreement in question is suspect because it would impose penalties more severe than what the law requires for “infractions” of the 1986 electronic privacy act.
“This (alleged McDermott plea bargain) is advanced by someone who is completely ignorant,” said Levine.
Still, when pressed whether his client was guilty of even an infraction, Levine refused comment.
At the same time, Levine speculated Boehner may have ulterior political motives for pressing the high-profiled case in the media and in court: to dredge up the Gingrich case to hurt the House speaker in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt by House Republicans.
Boehner, according to Schnittger, said “that as soon as Mr. McDermott resigns from Congress we can talk.”
In a Nov. 4 letter to Boehner, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Fois said, “Please be assured that this investigation is proceeding in a thorough, disciplined, and diligent fashion and that the investigative and prosecutorial resources assigned to this matter are both adequate and appropriate.”
