Dirty Democrat files: Jim McDermott drums up cash for illegal eavesdropping/leaked tape case
I noted last week that Dirty Jim McDermott lost his Supreme Court appeal of his illegal eavesdropping/leaked tape case. McDermott has been able to stave off paying Rep. John Boehner damages and attorneys’ fees estimated at $800,000 for years. No more.
Look for McDermott to start passing the hat with redoubled effort among moonbats to foot the bill.
The Seattle P-I reports:
Rep. Jim McDermott’s long-running legal dispute with a top House Republican is almost over, but his financial woes may be just beginning.
The Washington Democrat is bracing for a federal District Court to hit him with a bill for more than $800,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees — a tab McDermott says he can’t afford right now.
“We have some money to raise,” McDermott said, acknowledging that he does not have enough in either his re-election campaign fund or a separate legal trust to pay the expected bill.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear McDermott’s appeal of a federal appeals court ruling that the lawmaker was liable for leaking to reporters a tape-recording of a cell phone conversation among Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other Republican leaders discussing an ethics investigation of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia previously ordered McDermott to pay Boehner $10,000 in statutory damages, $50,000 in punitive damages and unspecified attorneys’ fees. The court is expected to soon decide the final attorneys’ fees, expected to total around $800,000.
Quarterly reports filed by the legal trust the congressman set up in October 2000 show that McDermott has roughly $10,000 left in that account to pay his legal bills. Since the legal trust’s creation, it has reported taking in $526,907 from contributors, many of whom live in the congressman’s Seattle-area district. In the meantime, it has spent $517,809 of those donations on McDermott’s D.C.-based lawyers, fundraising activities and a Web site designed to pull in more contributions.
More than $350,000 has gone to the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis, which represented McDermott through the legal battles that took him to the Supreme Court twice.
Seattle supporters call the outlaw McDermott a “patriot.” Several celebrities and Democrat colleagues have also coughed up money:
Disclosure forms filed by the trust reveal that donors have included Robert Fulghum, a Seattle resident who wrote several books including “All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
Fulghum reported giving McDermott $5,000 in 2001. His wife, Lynn Edwards, also sent the legal trust a check for $5,000.
Bill Gates Sr., the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, donated $1,000 to the fund in 2003, then followed up with an additional $5,000 in 2005.
And singer Barbra Streisand gave $500 in April 2001.
Several of McDermott’s colleagues on Capitol Hill have contributed cash from their campaigns. At least two — Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., — have written personal checks to the legal trust.
But most of McDermott’s contributions have come from Seattle-area residents such as Majdi Daher, who sent the legal fund $3,000 in July.
Daher said he believed McDermott’s decision to release the tape-recording “took a lot of guts.”
“Congressman McDermott is an extremely great patriot,” Daher said. “He stood up for what he believed.
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I guess I didn’t get the version that included:
Play nice.
Wash your hands.
Eavesdrop on others.
Flush.
Milk and cookies are good.
Getting caught sucks.
It’s in the Hsu box in the refrigerator.
Why should anyone other than him pay for his misdeeds? Just like why did anyone send the Clintons money to pay for their attorney bills? Whatever happened to reaping what you sow? IMO, anyone who sends McDermott money is an idiot.
He’s a Democrat – he thinks you owe it.
Did I read this right… he doesn’t have enough in his re-election campaign to pay the bills?
I thought re-election monies should go to re-election. Think I’ll run for office and collect money to pay my credit card bills.
Wow… Is it legal to use donated money to pay personal bills?
#5 … You beat me to it but that was the first question I had after reading those statements …
This is San fran Nan’s and dirty harry’s clean house?
Is McDermott providing foster care for James Trafficant’s rug until Trafficant finishes his sentence?
Texas Tiger, Didn’t Trafficant blow his top when the read the verdict? I thought I saw that wig fly into space.
When they read.
How nice…liberal cronies giving money to a criminal.
now, they bugged another congressman’s office and released the tapes. am i missing something here? he is a hero? he is a patriot?
if this were reversed and it was a republican releasing tapes of dems, would they think it takes guts and how patriotic they were? i think not. i think they would be yelling off to jail with those evil repuplicans!
wow, the insanity is so frustrating.
Who is going to help pay for Norman Hsu’s defense?
Better yet. Why is this guy still in office? Hello? Ethics Committee? Anyone?
Oh yeah, forgot. That only applies to Republicans.
All those rich dishwashers.
The devious skunk should sell his house to pay the bill. Instead, he mooches off of simple minded liberals.
Congressman McDermott, do the right thing and resign. We have enough criminals in DC with out you. Go home.
He stole one of Lott’s Goathair beauties…
Yes, if he were thinking, he’d get a HUGE second mortgage, and get Bush and Hillary to make us pay for it.
Yet again, no personal responsibility on the part of a liberal. Everyone who is surprised jump up and down on one leg until all your pocket change falls into his legal defense fund.
The fine print here is the money raised to pull McDs sorry behind out of the swamp he voluntarily dove into is going to end up in GOP pockets.
IMHO, the folks in Seattle ought to find it in their hearts to let him hang out to dry and use the money to elect someone a bit more reasonable — you know, someone only 5 notches blue from center instead of McDs 10 or 20 notches…
Having lived in this area for far too many years (I live within spitting distance of the Unitarian Church that Robert Fulghum calls home — not that he shows up there that often anymore), I assure you McDermott will have no trouble raising the money. A single $1000/plate dinner, maybe throw in a photo-op with the jerk, should do the job nicely — the well-heeled, America Worst crowd, and there are a lot of them out here, is guaranteed to show up and put his money worries to rest. Actually, he hardly needs any money at all for his re-election campaign — his is one of the safest seats in the country.
I mention the Unitarian Church because, for reasons that escape me, I actually checked it out a couple of years ago. If one cares about America, it is impossible to endure these people. They worship Fulghum, who abandoned his infant daughter for his worthless literary career, and McDermott equally. This is particularly distressing to me because two of these church members I had deep regard for and considered them my friends. Oh well. Flush, indeed.
Why don’t they just take it out of his pay…like the IRS does?
Around 200 years ago, it was said that the Unitarians believe in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man and the neighborhood of Boston.
Dear Mr. Majdi Daher:
I suppose it’s a real gutsy person that publishes the contents of a legal and private conversation. Too bad your scummy congress-critter, mcdermot, thinks that terrorists should have more rights than Americans!
Rep. Boehner should put a lean on Mc D’s assets until all the money is paid! That would frost his goat!
I am going to sleep peaceful tonight with this Schadenfruend.
I seem to recall that Linda Tripp was indicted and fired from her job for taping her own phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky. She did it for her own protection. She was being asked in a threatening manner to lie under oath on behalf of President Clinton and she wanted proof that she was telling the truth when she testified.
Jim McDermott released to the press, without permission from either party, an illegally taped cell phone conversation. Shouldn’t he at least lose his job as well?
The left villified Linda Tripp for what they said was a violation of privacy. But the fact that they couldn’t care less about McDermott violating someone’s privacy proves that the real reason they were outraged at Linda was because she provided proof that Clinton had lied under oath.
I wouldn’t mention spitting on this site. It’s a touchy subject.
This is the most true statement from a liberal, about liberals, EVER!
They know public schools are an unmitigated failure so when one of their own tells the truth, it’s treated as a joke. I’m sure all of the illiterate high school grads are laughing about the jobs they can’t get. You know, the ones for the rich liberal elitists that go to private school to learn to read and write?
This is really good news to finally see him being held financially accountable. Too bad he is not a Republican he would lose all his committee seats and he would be urged to resign. Democrats appear to wear their shame as a badge of honor, too bad they have none.
If I get sued and lose, I’m pretty sure if I don’t have the money, the court will take my house, my cars, whatever I have of value…why will this piece of trash get off unscathed?