The New York Times reveals today, on the day in December when Newt Gingrich admitted bringing discredit on the House, his lawyer told Republican leaders that the speaker had promised an ethics subcommittee not to use his office and his allies to orchestrate a Republican counterattack against the committee’s charges. That was part of the price for the subcommittee’s agreement to accept his admission of guilt and spare him the potential humiliation of a full-scale public trial. But that same day, even before the charges had been made public, Gingrich held a telephone conference call with other House leaders in which he made suggestions for a statement that the leaders would issue immediately after the subcommittee’s charges were disclosed. A source familiar with the tape confirmed to The Washington Post its existence last night and said it could be construed as Gingrich breaking the agreement. Gingrich and his top lieutenants could be heard plotting possible responses to expected Democratic attacks. The tape was made by people who intercepted a cellular telephone transmission with a police scanner.