Bush administration drastically cuts penalties sought for in tobacco trial from $130 billion to $10 billion

Friday, June 17, 2005

Bush appointee Robert McCallum overrode Justice Department lawyers who had been handling the government's tobacco racketeering trial for the past 5 years. McCallum ordered the lawyers to reduce the penalties sought at the close of the nine-month trial from $130 billion to $10 billion, angering some of the trial lawyers to the point where it is reported they threatened to quit their jobs.

"Everyone is asking, 'Why now?' " said an anonymous Justice Department employee afraid of retaliation. "Why would you throw the case down the toilet at the very last hour, after five years?"

Congressional Democrats oppose the slashing of the penalties for the tobacco industry, and have asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales not to enter into a settlement based on "the unreasonably weak demands made by the government."

The New York Times pointed out that McCallum was a Skull and Bones 'brother' of President Bush. Bush has appointed a number of Skull and Bones club members to government positions since he became President, including SEC head and former Philip Morris executive William Donaldson. Bush strategist Karl Rove was a Phillip Morris lobbyist before Bush asked him to work on his 2000 campaign for the presidency.

Sources

Eric Lichtblau. "Lawyers Fought U.S. Move to Curb Tobacco Penalty" — New York Times, June 16,2005
Hilary Roxe. "U.S. Urged Not to Settle Tobacco Trial" — Associated Press, June 16, 2005
Robert Dreyfuss. "George W. Bush: Calling for Philip Morris" — The Nation, October 21, 1999

The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
Please note that this only applies to Wikinews content created prior to September 25, 2005. All content created after that date is released under a Creative Commons license which is mentioned at the bottom of each article. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

Share this: