McDermott pays taped call damages

WASHINGTON - Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $64,000 in damages to House Republican leader John Boehner — the first payment in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call involving Boehner and other GOP leaders. The payment, which includes $50,000 in court-ordered punitive damages, $10,000 in statutory damages and $4,169 in interest, is the first of what could be more than more than $850,000 in fines and fees owed by McDermott, D-Wash. That's how much Boehner, R-Ohio, says he has paid in legal fees over the course of the 10-year-old case, which stems from a December 1996 telephone call in which Republican leaders discussed an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The Supreme Court ruled last month that McDermott acted improperly in giving reporters access to an audio tape given to him by a Florida couple who had recorded the cell phone call on a police radio scanner. McDermott, at the time a senior member of the House ethics committee, leaked the tape to two newspapers, which published articles on the case in January 1997. The exact amount McDermott owes in the case is the subject of a separate legal dispute being heard in federal court. A ruling on the fees is expected in the next few weeks. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner, called it ironic that the payment from McDermott's legal defense fund will go to Boehner's campaign account. "Mr. McDermott is the biggest contributor" to the account, known as "Friends of John Boehner," Smith said Thursday. The money "will be used to defeat fellow Democrats of Mr. McDermott," he said. Mike DeCesare, a spokesman for McDermott, called the payment a sign of "the process moving along," adding that McDermott hopes to get the matter behind him and move on to other issues. A report filed with the House clerk shows McDermott's legal expense trust fund took in about $56,000 in the final three months of 2007, for a full-year total of just over $100,000.