Cannabis Lobbyist: John Boehner Bogarted My Secret Stash (of Strategy Ideas)

July 29, 2022
AggregatedNews
Policy & Legal
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A lawsuit says the former speaker and a top D.C. law firm stole his legalization-campaign plans. The defendants say their accuser must be smoking something.

One way or the other, the John Boehner weed lawsuit shows how cutthroat the cannabis sector of Washington’s political-influence industry is.

If you buy the complaint filed by Washington lobbyist James Pericola, you’re liable to see evidence of a cutthroat business environment in the allegation that the former speaker of the House of Representatives, along with one of the capital’s most storied law and lobbying shops, stole his talking points and confidential tactical plans for creating an umbrella cannabis advocacy group — before going out and starting an almost identical organization without him.

And if you’re swayed by the response from Boehner and co-defendant Squire Patton Boggs, you’ll see evidence of a cutthroat culture in their description of an environment where a comparative nobody can purport to claim intellectual property ownership over concepts that, in a more established industry, could hardly be described as secrets — and then have the gall to demand a court award him damages.

Either way, the details of the case, which was filed this spring but concerns events before and immediately after Boehner’s post-retirement emergence as a marijuana-legalization advocate, shed new light on the origins of one of the most unlikely conversions in recent political history, an evolution that helped transform the former speaker’s image from surly legislative obstructionist to rakish Uncle John. [Read More at Politico]