DOJ Official to Testify Today in Tobacco Lawsuit

Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum will be deposed this morning in a lawsuit seeking information about why the Justice Department drastically reduced the amount of damages it was seeking in a suit against the big tobacco companies. Last June, following a lengthy trial, DOJ officials announced they were cutting the amount of damages they were seeking from tobacco companies, from $130 billion to $14 billion. That decision prompted the lead attorney in the government’s case, Sharon Eubanks, pictured above, to quit, saying that Bush political appointees undercut the government’s case against big tobacco. "The amount sought by the U.S. government was dictated by the political appointees of the Department of Justice," Eubanks, a 22-year veteran, told ABC News last year. "It was very difficult to work with political officials," she said, "I did not receive their support or encouragement." Critics of the tobacco industry suspected that McCallum was specifically involved in the decision to seek lesser penalties because of politics. McCallum was a partner at Alston & Bird, a powerful law firm that had represented RJ Reynolds, though McCallum did not specifically work on tobacco issues. A DOJ review by the Office of Professional Responsibility cleared McCallum of any wrongdoing noting he "did not engage in professional misconduct or exercise poor judgment," according to the OPR memo. The full results of that OPR investigation were never released. Today’s deposition is part of a FOIA lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) seeking information on why the penalties were cut. McCallum, meanwhile, was recently confirmed as the new Ambassador to Australia, and this is his last week at DOJ.