McDermott may face up to $880K in legal fees for case

Nine years, several appeals and $880,000 later, a lawyer for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said it is time for Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) to pony up the legal fees and settle a decade-long litigation battle.
In a letter dated May 15, Boehner’s lawyer, Michael Carvin, urged McDermott “to move forward with the determination of attorney’s fees and costs,” citing a 5-4 ruling earlier this month by the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, in favor of Boehner.

The letter cited “approximately $880,000 in reasonable fees and costs incurred litigating the federal claim.”

{mosads}In a statement, McDermott rejected Carvin’s letter, characterizing it as “unexpected, unsolicited and premature.”

He added, “This is a very important case, with significant constitutional issues involved, and for the attorney to the plaintiff to act otherwise is impertinent and unwarranted. We are considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and there are over two months remaining before a decision is required.”

According to court documents, then-Republican Conference Chairman Boehner participated in a conference call in 1997 with other Republican leaders, including then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.). The GOP leaders discussed Gingrich’s decision to accept a reprimand from the ethics committee if the panel pledged not to hold a hearing.

The cell phone conversation was picked up by a police scanner and taped by two individuals, John and Alice Martin, who later passed it along to McDermott. The Washington lawmaker, the ranking Democrat on the ethics panel at the time, then allowed reporters from three newspapers to listen to the recording.

The court ruled that McDermott “had no First Amendment right to disclose the tape to the media” because he had agreed to uphold a code of confidentiality upon joining the ethics committee.

In his letter, Carvin called the $880,000 figure “extremely reasonable” given the nine-year timeline and the laundry list of legal proceedings. Included in the sum is $230,000 for proceedings for the first appeal; $190,000 for the second; $310,000 for the proceedings in the district court “on remand”; and $150,000 for “rehearings en banc.”
 
“Before the district court held the fee issue in abeyance, we were waiting for you to give us your general reactions to the fee and cost amounts, and to notify us whether you have categorical or other objections that would not involve a line by line examination of time entries and expenses,” Carvin wrote.

When contacted by The Hill yesterday, Carvin declined to comment further on the case.

The sum of Boehner’s legal fees comes on top of $60,000 in damages that a federal court had already fined McDermott.

McDermott could have gotten a significant discount several years ago, when Boehner offered to drop the suit if the Democrat would apologize on the House floor and donate $10,000 to charity.

McDermott refused the offer and pressed on with the appeal.

According to his latest financial disclosure form, McDermott has accumulated roughly $21,000 for his legal expense trust and owes at least $10,000 in his own legal fees as of May 2006.

McDermott last commented on the case on May 1, when he said in a statement that the court decision  “sharply limited the free speech protections of the First Amendment in violation of binding Supreme Court precedent.”
McDermott has also had little luck with the ethics committee, which issued a report on Dec. 6, 2006, that reprimanded McDermott and called the disclosure of the phone call “inconsistent with the spirit of the applicable rules” and “a failure on his part to meet his obligations” as ranking member of the panel.

McDermott stepped down from the committee in January 1997, saying that the investigation into his handling of the tape was impeding the panel’s work.