In January Sen Ted Cruz claimed: “I don’t really know Speaker Boehner” (R-OH) on Bloomberg Television — This week, Ted Cruz said of the former House Speaker Boehner “I don’t know the man” on Fox News with Megyn Kelly but was in-fact his former lawyer.
According to Business Insider in 1998 before Boehner became Speaker of the House of Representatives and Cruz was elected to the Senate, Boehner had commenced litigation against Rep Jim McDermott (D-WA) for allegedly breaking wiretapping laws.
The lawsuit stemmed from a Florida couple recording a call between Boehner and then House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) they had heard over a police scanner. The couple sent the audio recording to McDermott, who later allegedly released it to the NY Times and other publications. The call centered around alleged ethical violations Gingrich faced at the time and McDermott was the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee.
Furious, Boehner called this an invasion of privacy and hired Ted Cruz, who had recently before served as a Law Clerk for then Justice William Rehnquist — Cruz made an early appearance before the news media defending his client John Boehner after he had sent out a fundraising appeal to help defray his legal expenses.
“The fundraising letter is much ado about nothing,” Cruz told the Seattle Times – “Congressman McDermott consistently attempted to delay the litigation and drive up expense. It is reasonably expected that Congressman Boehner will use the means at his disposal to raise funds to pursue the lawsuit.”
Later when Jay Leno asked Boehner what he thought of Cruz, he referred to him as a “good guy” adding, “I don’t always agree with him but he’s a good guy.”
More here from The Washington Post