Bush Administration Intervened to Water Down Case Against Tobacco
Alberto Gonzales gets no good days this week. Sharon Eubanks, a Federal prosecutor who worked for the Justice Department (and Gonzales) charged today that Bush Administration staffers intervened in her case against the tobacco industry in late 2005. Their interference watered down and weakened the case which was ultimately decided in favor of the industry.
The former leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said Wednesday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government’s racketeering case.
Sharon Eubanks, who served 22 years as a lawyer at Justice, said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ office began micromanaging the team’s strategy in the final weeks of the June 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government’s claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers. Click here to read more in the Seattle Times.