Mcdermott Aides Called By Grand Jury Assistants Asked To Testify In Illegal Taping Of Gop Leaders
The two senior Washington, D.C., aides to Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., have been subpoenaed to give grand jury testimony as part of a Justice Department investigation of the illegal taping of a telephone call involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The subpoenas were disclosed when McDermott’s chief of staff Mike Williams and executive assistant Wilda Chisolm formally notified the House, as they are required to do under House rules.
“No comment, and the congressman isn’t available,” Chisolm said Friday to an inquiry about what the grand jury might want to know from her.
Asked why she had no comment, Chisolm added: “Because I don’t know anything. I know what you know.”
The Justice Department is looking into how the tape of a cellular phone conversation between House Speaker Newt Gingrich, House Republican Conference chairman John Boehner and other GOP leaders leaked into the press after it was turned over to McDermott last January.
“The fact that these staff members were subpoenaed is clear indication that the Justice Department has moved past initial stages of the investigation into how the tape was made, how it was distributed to the news media, and Mr. McDermott’s involvement in the case,” said Terry Holt, an aide to Boehner.
In the taped conversation, Gingrich, Boehner and House Majority leader Dick Armey discussed how to respond to a House Ethics Committee finding that Gingrich had violated House rules. Gingrich had promised the committee not to participate in planning any public relations counterattack.
A Florida couple, John and Alice Martin, taped the conversation from their car and sent it to their congresswoman, Rep. Karen Thurman, D-Fla. Several days later, on a trip to Washington, D.C., the couple were given back the package - unopened - and told to deliver it to McDermott.
McDermott at the time was the senior Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating Gingrich.
Copies of the tape were obtained by The New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a leak Republicans blamed on McDermott.
After The New York Times printed remarks from the tape, and the Martins identified McDermott as the congressman to whom they gave it, McDermott tried to turn the tape over to the Ethics Committee. On instructions from the panel’s GOP chairwoman, Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., the committee refused to accept the tape and sent it to the criminal division of the Justice Department.
McDermott stepped down from his post on the Ethics Committee, but has refused to say whether he gave copies of the tape to the newspapers.
It is against federal law to intercept cellular telephone conversations, or to receive and disclose intercepted conversations.
In an April letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, Boehner threatened to file a civil lawsuit or ethics complaint if the Justice Department did not speed up its investigation of McDermott’s involvement.
The Martins pleaded guilty in April to using a radio scanner to intentionally intercept a phone call. They were fined $500 each and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department investigation.