McDermott paying for taped call case

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 is the first of what could be 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.