Couple Admit to Charges in GOP Phone Intercept

A Florida couple agreed Wednesday to plead guilty to federal criminal charges of intercepting a cellular telephone call between House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other Republican leaders in December.

Identical one-count criminal charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., against John and Alice Martin of Fort White, Fla.

The Martins signed agreements with prosecutors to plead guilty and those were filed along with the charges. The Martins admitted that they intentionally intercepted the telephone conversation and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation.

Justice officials, who requested anonymity, said the investigation is continuing here into how a transcript of the conversation ended up in newspapers.

The call, involving Gingrich, House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, Rep. Bill Paxon of New York and others, took place Dec. 21 as the House Ethics Committee was about to announce a settlement of its investigation of complaints against Gingrich.

Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Ethics Committee, said the call breached Gingrich’s agreement with the committee that the speaker would not orchestrate a response to his ethical wrongdoing.

Republicans said the transcript, to the contrary, showed that Gingrich was following the agreement, and they demanded an investigation of the call’s interception.

The Martins each face a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine with no prison term.

Alice Martin, reached at home, refused to comment Wednesday and referred questions to the couple’s attorney.

The Martins heard the conversation on the Radio Shack scanner in their car while on a Christmas shopping trip. Once they realized the conversation they were picking up was of Gingrich discussing the Republican response to his admitted ethics violations, they recorded it on a hand-held machine. They said it struck them as historic.