It went to the SCOTUS 2x and every aspect of this was hyper litigated. I don’t' think $600k in legal fees is impossible given the amount of time and procedural effort this has been through. I give Boehner a lot of credit for hanging on through all the delays and diversions this one has had. It’s sweet to see McDermott take it in the wallet for this – and I’m hoping there is some way he cannot use campaign funds to pay the fine.
My main thought about this matter has to do with the innocent old couple that first intercepted the call. At the time this came out – there as a press conference held by the couple and their attorney – and they supposedly explained how they had captured the call while on their way to a shopping mall. What was most intriguing about their statements is that they were totally devoid of any techno-jargon, any slang or shorthand phrases common to the scanning/technoid community. It seems to me that if you were sophisticated enough a scanning enthusiast to be driving around with a scanner and a handy tape recorder while on trips to the mall, it wouldn’t be unexpected that in your press conference you might drop a few remarks reflecting familiarity with scanning (type/brand of scanner, frequencies scanned, and other jargon). Yet these people used very plain language and never slipped in a word or phrase that made you think they were truly the ones who captured the conversation in the purported fashion.
I have always believed that the democrats had an Anthony Pellicano-type crew monitoring Gingrich and they captured this recording somewhere else, or via other means, then used the old couple (amiable dunces) as a cut-out in the true chain of responsibility.
As I recall, Gingrich & the others were having their last conference call before the agreed-upon silence period was to begin. They were totally acting within their agreement.
IIRC, the Martins said their children had gotten the scanner for them for their birthday, and they were just starting to get used to it. It was all fun & games until they captured these baaaaaad Republican congressmen hatching their evil conspiracy to follow the agreement. Then they just HAD to tell the world of this nefarious plot.