WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott to pay House Minority Leader John Boehner more than $1 million in legal fees in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call.
Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McDermott to pay Boehner $1.05 million in attorney’s fees and costs, plus about $40,000 in interest. McDermott, a Washington Democrat, also had to pay more than $60,000 in fines and damages, as well as nearly $600,000 in fees to his own lawyers.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that McDermott acted improperly in giving reporters access to an audiotape given to him by a Florida couple who recorded a 1996 telephone call involving ethics allegations against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
