Senator seeks Bush nominee delay over tobacco case

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senator wants to delay
consideration of President George W. Bush’s nominee to serve as
the ambassador to Australia until his role in the U.S.
government’s racketeering case against cigarette makers is
thoroughly examined.

Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said in an April
12 letter to Bush that it was premature for Associate Attorney
General Robert McCallum to move to a new position of public
trust until it was clear he had not engaged in any
inappropriate conduct.

“He should not be promoted until the questions surrounding
his role in the tobacco case are resolved,” Durbin wrote.

McCallum’s appointment requires confirmation by the U.S.
Senate.

At issue is a decision reached by McCallum and other senior
Justice Department officials in June last year to scale back
the remedy sought by the government in its landmark case
against the tobacco industry.

Senior officials decided to pull back from the department’s
initial plan to ask a federal judge force cigarette makers to
fund a $130 billion, 25-year, quit-smoking program. Instead,
lawyers for the department recommended a $10 billion, five-year
program.

McCallum denied any political influence, saying afterward
that the remedy had to be scaled down to keep it in line with
an appeals court ruling in the case, which dictated that it
could only address future misconduct by the tobacco companies.

McCallum could not immediately be reached for comment on
Thursday. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Targeted in the lawsuit, filed in 1999, are Altria Group
Inc. and its Philip Morris USA unit; Loews Corp.’s Lorillard
Tobacco unit, which has a tracking stock, Carolina Group;
Vector Group Ltd.’s Liggett Group; Reynolds American Inc.’s
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and British American Tobacco Plc
unit British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.

Cigarette makers deny they illegally conspired to promote
smoking and say the government has no grounds to pursue them
after they drastically overhauled marketing practices as part
of a 1998 settlement with state attorneys general.

The racketeering trial ended in June, and U.S. District
Judge Gladys Kessler has yet to issue a ruling.

The last-minute decision to scale back the government’s
proposed remedy provoked a storm of criticism from anti-smoking
activists and charges of political influence.

An investigation was subsequently launched by the Justice
Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Durbin said
in his letter that the office “has not shared any information
on the status or conclusions of this investigation.”

Durbin said it would be “premature” to consider McCallum’s
nomination until the internal investigation is completed.