Appellate Court says McDermott owes Boehner $600k

As noted in today's OpinionJournal, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a $600,000 District Court judgment in favor of House Majority Leader John Boehner and against former Ranking Member of the House Ethics Committee Jim McDermott for disclosing an illegally obtained cell phone conversation to New York Times reporter Adam Clymer in January, 1997. McDermott resigned from the Ethics Committee because of this matter.

The Supreme Court previously considered and remanded this case when it decided
a similar case involving 18 USC §2511 (Bartnicki v. Vopper).

You may recall McDermott from his "Baghdad Democrat" days, and that he had accepted a $5,000 campaign donation from one of Saddam Hussein's cronies, returning it only when the Weekly Standard published the disclosure. McDermott also invited Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to visit Seattle right before the WTO meeting in 1999. Frontpagemag.com has named him one of the Ten Most Dishonorable Americans.

And if you recall, President Bush considered Times reporter Adam Clymer to be "in the major leagues" or something like that.