Boehner Hands $500 Per Hour Lawsuit To Sue Obama To Former GOP Buddy’s Firm

John Boehner has given the House lawsuit to sue President Barack Obama to the law firm that’s home to the former Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

John Boehner likes to spend money on lawyers.

For almost two years he spent an estimated $3 million to defend DOMA in the federal courts — and in the U.S. Supreme Court. His $520 per hour outside attorney, Paul Clement, lost. And the taxpayers lost about $3 million.

Now, in an embarrassing attempt to assuage the Tea Party by trying to sue the President over an executive order delaying the Obamacare mandate among private companies — something Boehner supports — he has announced today he will spend up to $350,000 on a law firm that was founded in his home state of Ohio: BakerHostetler.

LOOK: In Op-Ed, John Boehner Reveals He Has No Actual Legal Justification For Suing President Obama

That’s not the only eyebrow-raising taxpayer-funded conflict of interest.

The law firm, to which Boehner will pay $500 per hour, is the home to Boehner’s GOP buddy, the former Republican Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Mike Oxley, who represented the good people of… yes, Ohio.

And BakerHostetler is no stranger to John Boehner.

BakerHostetler, on their website, touts it is “one of the nation’s largest law firms,” it “represents clients around the globe,” and has “nearly 900 lawyers.”

Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attacked the arrangement. 

“We finally know that Republicans have handed a $500-an-hour, no-bid contract to a Washington law firm for a lawsuit that lays the groundwork for impeachment and rallies the most extreme elements of the Republican Party,” Pelosi said.

Calling the lawsuit an “outrageous waste of taxpayer dollars,” Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel labeled it “yet another reminder of House Republicans’ misguided priorities.”

“Only in John Boehner’s world,” Israel said, “does it make sense to pay lawyers $500 per hour to work on a partisan lawsuit while refusing to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for hardworking Americans trying to feed their families.”

BakerHostetler reportedly has many notable clients, including ExxonMobil, Ford, Morgan Stanley, and Major League Baseball. 

Ironically, BakerHostetler — whose leading partner David Rivkin Jr. is the co-author of the plan to sue President Obama — will have to argue a similar defense that the failed Paul Clement did: injury to the House of Representatives.

 

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr