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No one knows how Paul Clement will be paid. And, that may be criminal.



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UPDATE: There are criminal penalties for violating the Antideficiency Act. Chris Geidner pointed me to those penalties, which can be found at 31 U.S.C. § 1350.:

An officer or employee of the United States Government or of the District of Columbia government knowingly and willfully violating section 1341 (a) or 1342 of this title shall be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both.
Given how severe the financial situation is for the U.S. government (as we're constantly reminded by the House GOPers), this certainly warrants jail time.
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This is classic. Yesterday, we got more information of how Paul Clement screwed over King & Spalding by signing a contract to defend DOMA without following the firm's established procedures. Now, we're learning that John Boehner's lawyer may have violated the law by signing the contract with Clement.

Amanda Terkel has an excellent article on the question that no one can answer: Where is the money coming from to pay Paul Clement for defending DOMA?:
BLAG has no budget, since it's not an actual committee. Congress has not specifically appropriated $500,000 for this case. Boehner first asked the Justice Department to hand over "the funds it would have otherwise expended defending the constitutionality of DOMA" in April, but the agency has so far given no indication it will agree to his repeated requests. (Attorney General Eric Holder has also said the Justice Department wouldn't have spent much on it anyway, since it would have been done by career employees of the government.)

The mystery deepened during a House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Thursday.

Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif.) pressed House General Counsel Kerry Kircher on the matter. Although the contract states that "the General Counsel agrees to pay the Contractor for all contractual services," Kircher said he was told by the House Republican leadership that no funds would come out of the Office of General Counsel's budget for this purpose.

Dan Strodel, the House's chief administrative officer, is the man who, according to Honda's office, would ultimately write the checks to Brancroft PLLC. But at the hearing, he also said he had no knowledge of where the money would come from.
Oh, it gets better. Not only do people on the Hill have no idea where the money is coming from, signing the contract may have been a violation of the law:
Honda believes that Boehner's agreement could be violating the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits "involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated for that purpose." Knowingly violating the law could lead to being fined or imprisoned.

A source familiar with House finances told The Huffington Post that Honda may have a case. The House General Counsel signed the contract and agreed to pay the funds. But since he has admitted that his office doesn't have the money for this case, House leadership would have to have the funds reprogrammed or transferred from other House accounts. The source said that transfer should have been executed before Kircher signed the contract with Clement and Bancroft.

"The budget is pretty tight for the House," said a Democratic Appropriations Committee aide. "These are all funds that are accounted from. Trying to pull randomly $500,000 is not easy with the House budget as tightly wound as it is."
Sounds like the Department of Justice should now be investigating the Speaker and his counsel for breaking the law. The House Ethics Committee, as useless as it is, should also weigh in. The Speaker really wanted to demonstrate his homophobia by defending DOMA. He was so obsessed, he may have broken the law and the contract may not be valid. Paul Clement may be defending DOMA pro bono.

The Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341, can be viewed here.

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