Prosecutor Says Bush Appointees Interfered With Tobacco Case

[deminks]

Source: Washington Post

The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.

Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim from a closing argument they rewrote for her, she said.

"The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102713.html

[fooj]

1. Drip, drip, drip...

[blueguynredcity]

30. And, Jack Abramoff is getting a sentence reduction!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6500283,00.html

Put in new prosecutors and get what ever you want.

[jaysunb]

2. Front Page !!!!

I smell, "cooked ass." :evilfrown:

[Spazito]

The wall is crumbling, the bricks are tumbling faster and

faster. Those who believe in the rule of law are going to get the truth out, of that I have no doubt.

[Pachamama]

20. I agree Spazito, however my concern is that BushCo. has been able to subvert the rule of law and the

justice system here in the US by putting in place "their people" and threatening and removing those that don't do their bidding. I just pray that the judicial branch of our fragile remains of a democracy can prove to uphold the law and that this criminal bunch in the Executive Branch are finally, finally exposed and brought to justice. My outrage meter has maxed out....I just can't stand it anymore hearing about each outrageous item each day perpetrated by these treasonous bastards.

I just try to visualize each day these people being brought to trial and frog marched and exposed and prosecuted before the whole world....

:hi:

[Spazito]

24. They got caught putting "their people" into place to subvert

the justice system and good people who care about the rule of law are speaking out and will continue to do so and that's a good thing. The key, imo, is for the Democrats in both the House and the Senate to hold firm and issue the subpoenas if the bush cabal doesn't back down on it's claim of "executive privilege".

I think the fight to make the Constitution more than a "god damned piece of paper" again has begun and, in the end, the bush cabal and their neocon handlers will lose.

It's good to see you, Pachamama, I haven't seen you post lately!

:hi:

[Erika]

3. Obstruction of justice

and politicizing the Department of Justice. Bush thought his imperialism tactics would work on our onw freedoms.

[primavera]

25. Oh hell, this is nothing

At least this is only interference. This sort of thing and worse has been going on throughout the executive branch since der Fuhrer usurped President Gore's office but no one's been paying it any attention before now. When the shrub first took office, I had a good friend who was an attorney working in DoJ's environmental enforcement division, working on superfund litigation against corporate polluters, many of whom were major contributors from the energy industry to the shrub's election campaign. One of the White House's first orders of business was to go through my friend's division, identify the lead counsels for all of the trials DoJ was then litigating, remove them from those cases and replace them with new appointees who had previously been employed by, you guessed it, the defendants. Astonishingly enough, these newly appointed lead counsels swiftly concluded that there were insufficient grounds to continue the litigation against their former employers and speedily settled out of court for a six pack of Bud and a quart of pork fried rice. Compared to that, the interference described in this article seems mild: at least the litigation was allowed to continue in some form.

[grytpype]

4. Bring on the klieg lights!

[napi21]

5. THIS was 2005! How much of this OBSTRUCTION has been going on

over the last 6 years that we don't know about yet?

Earlier this evening I read about another statement from Cummings that said he was let go becasue he was investigating Roy Blunt!

Hmmm. No wonder Shrub looked like sh*t when he drew his line in the sand with the Dems. Of all the criminal things this crowd has done, THIS one ismost likely the one to fry them! Way too many people are involved, and most of them are pi**ed off already! You can't keep people like that quiet!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. More than the obstruction...

How has the whole process of Justice, from soup to nuts, been politicized and perverted?

Is there a straight line that can be drawn from voting problems, to NSA and FBI abrogations of constitutional rights, to what we are seeing now?

I expect that there is. And more. I expect our darkest fantasies may well be realized.

[napi21]

10. No doubt all your suspicions are true, BUT OBSTRUCTION

is fairly easy to prove! The other stuff...not so easy!

I really think ShrubCo stepped intoit big time when they assumed they could mess with the personal lives of a bunch of lawyers! Pay back is a BITCH!

[LiberalFighter]

11. Which to me means that Republicans in Congress should be prosecuted too

for obstruction of justice.

Bush/Cheney/Gonzales/and Company could not had done this without the help of a Republican controlled Congress.

[napi21]

14. Technically you're right, but I'm not sure just how far liability extends.

The Congress Pubs "trusted" their President. Or at least that's what they will claim. you can't be liable for a crime you didn't know about.

Good idea, but I don't think it will fly!

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

6. Wow!!

[Auntie Bush]

7. Wow! Those are serious crimes and Gonzo will HAVE to go and

the administration is in deep sh**. These are the worst charges I've heard so far. I don't see how they can possibly defend that case.

[Fridays Child]

9. The rot runs deeper and deeper.

[Divernan]

12. Thousands of federal decisions now open to challenge because of political interference

Any cases involving the US Attorneys will now be open to challenge/appeals - I think, regardless if the statutes of limitations on appeals have run - because this level of political interference is NEW information, not available during trial, or when parties agreed to settlements or during the appeal periods. My opinion is based on general legal principles - since I don't think there are any legal precedents on such corruption of the legal process.

This is the latest piece of news in an extraordinary day exposing the depth and breadth of the Bush administration's arrogant and unconscionable corruption of the federal judicial system in general and the US Justice Department in particular. . No wonder Bush doesn't want his people to ever be made to testify in public and under oath.

[primavera]

26. Oh, I hadn't thought of that one

... but I suspect you're right. My, my, my, wouldn't that be an interesting development! That could be a really positive thing, as the judiciary's become so politicized, yet still somehow keeps managing to preserve its mythological veneer of independence and impartiality. Turning some scrutiny on the extent to which the reich wing's been tinkering with the judiciary for all of these years and the number of cases it's compromised might provide a gleam of hope in that bleak situation.

[Gregorian]

13. This is incredibly deep rooted.

And now it's all starting to make sense why stories just dropped from the radar screen. With the USA's being harrassed, and no media...poof...down the memory hole.

At least now it all makes sense. But this is probably the final straw. Big stuff!

About that "reasonable proposal". Go get stuffed, creep.

[Newsjock]

16. And all those "Justice Sunday" church rallies

No accident.

[hang a left]

23. Makes you wonder....

why Rove was never indicted by Fitz???

Doesn't it??

[aquart]

15. Wonder when we'll hear about the Microsoft case.

Because there is no way in hell they didn't do the same thing there.

[Miss Chybil]

17. Holy flippin' shit! This is the big one, Elizabeth!!! nt

[rodeodance]

18. Keep Digging!!

[K8-EEE]

19. What, BUSHCO Was MICROMANAGING??

LOL~~ That's their latest line about anybody trying to do damage control to the Glorious Iraq Crusade.

RECOMMENDED!

[DeSwiss]

21. Oh yeah I like this from the WaPo article:

"Eubanks, who retired from Justice in December 2005, said she is coming forward now because she is concerned about what she called the "overwhelming politicization" of the department demonstrated by the controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Lawyers from Justice's civil rights division have made similar claims about being overruled by supervisors in the past.

Eubanks said Congress should not limit its investigation to the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys.

"Political interference is happening at Justice across the department," she said. "When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration. . . . The rule of law goes out the window."

Its warming up!!!

[Morgana LaFey]

28. Incredibly important comment -- DUers, take note

from the above post and the WP article:

Eubanks said Congress should not limit its investigation to the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys.

"Political interference is happening at Justice across the department," she said. "When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration. . . . The rule of law goes out the window."

[philly_bob]

22. Ask them about the Microsoft case.

Widely considered a DOJ cave-in during the last stages of the monopolist's trial.

[Frances]

27. The Rule of Law

Remember how many times James Baker and the other Bush supporters used that term to stop the vote recount in Florida in 2000? These people are such hypocrites!

[blueguynredcity]

29. Jack Abramoff is getting a sentence reduction!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6500283,00.html

The only one reporting this is Firedoglake.

This is why this DOJ mess is so important.

[OKthatsIT]

31. Prosecutor Says Bush Appointees Interfered With Tobacco Case

Source: Washington Post

Prosecutor Says Bush Appointees Interfered With Tobacco Case

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A01

The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.

Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim a closing argument they had rewritten for her, she said.

"The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public."

Eubanks, who served for 22 years as a lawyer at Justice, said three political appointees were responsible for the last-minute shifts in the government's tobacco case in June 2005: then-Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum, then-Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and Keisler's deputy at the time, Dan Meron.

News reports on the strategy changes at the time caused an uproar in Congress and sparked an inquiry by the Justice Department. Government witnesses said they had been asked to change testimony, and one expert withdrew from the case. Government lawyers also announced that they were scaling back a proposed penalty against the industry from $130 billion to $10 billion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102713.html?nav=rss_politics

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102713.html?nav=rss_politics

---

WHISTLEBLOWER from heaven!!!
The DEMS HAVE CAUSE to go after these crooks, BIGTIME!

[annabanana]

32. BLOW that Whistle, Sister!!

Eubanks said Congress should not limit its investigation to the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys.

"Political interference is happening at Justice across the department," she said. "When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration. . . . The rule of law goes out the window."

Is this the one?

[Frustratedlady]

33. And, at the end of the article....

The most stressful moment, Eubanks said, came when the three appointees ordered her to read word for word a closing argument they had rewritten. The statement explained the validity of seeking a $10 billion penalty.

"I couldn't even look at the judge," she said.

[Miss Chybil]

34. Dupe. nt

[Fresh_Start]

35. If they prove corrupt officials involved, can they retry the case?

eom