U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-8) says he had a verbal agreement not to pay his child support. In a court filing yesterday, the congressman responded to his wife's allegations that Walsh owes her more than $117,000 in back child support and interest. Walsh says he and his wife not only agreed for him not to pay during some points in time without court intervention, but he says he also took full-time custody of their youngest child for close to a year and received no assistance from his former wife.

Walsh said the following in a statement today:

I don’t know why my ex-wife filed this complaint last December, three weeks after I was elected a U.S. Congressman. I don’t know why she and her lawyers knowingly filed a complaint with outright untrue allegations and claims. I don’t know why they have gone public and politicized this conflict. ...

I have unfairly endured two months of media ridicule as a 'deadbeat dad.' My children have had to endure this as well. Yesterday’s pleading proves this charge is unfounded and shows that I have been a loving, supportive, involved Dad from the beginning. I understand that politics is a rough business and I have been an outspoken member of Congress who has clearly become a target. But to lie about me, especially my worth as a Father just isn’t right and I won’t put up with it.

An attorney for Walsh's wife there was no agreement between the two for the congressman to stop paying child support and adds that his client stands behind all the claims made in the December filing, which, he says, was in process well before the Tea Party congressman became known publicly.