For those who have been wondering why the Justice Department reduced the settlement with the tobacco industry from $130 Billion to $10 Billion, the search is now over. The long time Bush friend, Associate Attorney General and former tobacco attorney, Robert McCallum has been pressuring the Justice Department attorneys to lower the settlement and surprise, surprise, McCallum has had his way. Politics once again manipulating policy. Sound familiar?
"We do not want politics to be perceived as the underlying motivation, and that is certainly a risk if we make adjustments in our remedies presentation that are not based on evidence," the two top lawyers for the trial team, Sharon Y. Eubanks and Stephen D. Brody, wrote in a memorandum on May 30 to Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum that was reviewed by The New York Times.
The newly disclosed documents make clear that the decision was made after weeks of tumult in the department and accusations from lawyers on the tobacco team that Mr. McCallum and other political appointees had effectively undermined their case. Mr. McCallum, No. 3 at the department, is a close friend of President Bush from their days as Skull & Bones members at Yale, and he was also a partner at an Atlanta law firm, Alston & Bird, that has done legal work for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, part of Reynolds American, a defendant in the case.
