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Contact:
or Dick Daynard e-mail to media @ tplp.org
June 16, 2005
TPLP ISSUES A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
REQUEST TO
The Tobacco Products Liability Project (TPLP) has submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request (pdf) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine whether improper political interference is occurring in last stages of the government's racketeering trial against the cigarette industry.
On June 7, 2005, the DOJ dramatically scaled back the scope of relief it is seeking from the cigarette industry by asking for less than 8% of the funding that its own renown expert in testimony last month indicated would be needed to fund a comprehensive and effective national smoking cessation program.
To this point, it has appeared that the career litigators at the Civil Division of DOJ have been permitted to prosecute this massive lawsuit brought against the cigarette companies under the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). As a result, they have done a masterful job of presenting evidence and experts to prove that the defendants have violated the RICO statute and should be found to have engaged in racketeering. Most observers believe that there is a strong possibility that the trial judge will find that violations of RICO have occurred. There is no legal theory that supports this dramatic about-face by the DOJ.
Have political appointees in positions of authority above the DOJ trial team exerted influence to hamper the administration of justice? Red flags suggesting an imminent weak settlement abound. Four of them are:
It would be important to know whether these figures have completely recused themselves from participation in this case.
One major problem for the DOJ were it to settle the tobacco case is that, in the course of the trial, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued a ruling that largely eviscerated the enforcement powers under the Civil provisions of the RICO statute. Because there are different interpretations of these enforcement provisions among the judicial Circuits and because these provisions are critically important in determining whether the federal government can use RICO to stop corporate fraud, there is a good chance that the US Supreme Court will review this decision and reverse it. There is little to lose by asking the US Supreme Court to consider the appeal which cannot happen if the tobacco case is settled.
On the other hand, there is a great deal for the cigarette companies to lose if the trial judge finds that they have engaged in racketeering. It could hurt their prospects in future private litigation, irreparably set back their massive public relations efforts, harm their image abroad where they want to aggressively expand their business unchecked by regulation, and embarrass their shareholders.
Richard Daynard, Professor of Law at Northeastern University states, "The DOJ has taken a dive here and people need to know why."
Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director of TPLP, says: "Until we know for certain what the possible justification for such a dramatic retreat could possibly be, we can only assume the worse: that the fix is in and the Administration's ties to the tobacco industry has corrupted the course of the trial "
Edward Sweda, Senior Attorney for TPLP notes that, "There is no scientific or legal justification for this 11th hour retreat."
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