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Political Leanings Were Always Factor in Tobacco Suit
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jun 19, 2005 12:39pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Sunday, June 19, 2005 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: June 19, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 18 - The case started as a bombshell: deep into his State of the Union address in 1999, President Bill Clinton surprised even the most ardent antismoking advocates by announcing that he was unleashing the considerable resources of his Justice Department to prepare a lawsuit against Big Tobacco.
Nine months later, a team of lawyers working in the bowels of the Justice Department made good on the president's promise by filing what amounted to one of the biggest federal lawsuits in history, accusing cigarette makers of a half-century of fraud, deceptive advertising and dangerous marketing practices.
The career lawyers working the case saw themselves on the cutting edge of a novel if controversial piece of litigation, several recalled in interviews. But exuberance turned to trepidation for some of the lawyers 15 months later when the Bush administration inherited the case. Some senior officials in the new administration saw the case as an albatross that prompted clear ambivalence, if not outright hostility.
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At the close of a nine-month trial, the Justice Department has now reduced the penalties it was seeking from the tobacco industry to $10 billion from $130 billion. Senior political appointees at the department made the move despite strong objections from leaders of the trial team running the case, who argued that the decision was not based on the facts of the case, would appear politically motivated and would undermine the government's position in a possible settlement, according to a May 30 memorandum disclosed last week in The New York Times. |
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