Politico Article: "Inside the John Boehner Weed Lawsuit"

It’s not hard to see that power and influence will eventually sway the day here.. The lobbyist vs the former speaker of the house turned vague weed enthusiast. It’s a no- brainer.

Politico write by way of introduction

A Washington lobbyist says the former Speaker stole his ideas. Boehner says his accuser must be smoking something.

ne 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.

Pericola’s bill of complaints begins in January of 2018, when Donald Trump’s then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, rescinded the Obama administration’s policy of not interfering with states that loosened their marijuana laws. The move riled an industry that had been growing as states across the country ended their bans. According to Pericola, now 46, he cooked up the idea for something called The 10 Campaign, named after the 10th amendment, which says that states have whatever powers the constitution doesn’t give to the federal government.