US judge queries cut in tobacco remedy

WASHINGTON - The judge in the racketeering case against cigarette makers has questioned whether "additional influences" prompted the government to drastically reduce a sanction it is seeking against the industry.

During a second day of closing arguments in the trial, US District Judge Gladys Kessler speculated about the Justice Department's decision to seek a US$10 billion, 5-year quit-smoking programme, far smaller than a US$130 billion, 25-year program proposed last month by a government witness.

"Perhaps it suggests that there are some additional influences being brought to bear on the government's position in this case," Kessler said.

The government's reduced request, outlined in court yesterday, has provoked speculation by tobacco analysts and some lawmakers that politics played a role in the decision.

"Big Tobacco is one of the top donors to Republicans, and it is getting what it paid for," New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg said in a statement.

Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, in court for the arguments, declined to comment on Kessler's remarks when approached by reporters.

A lawyer for Philip Morris told Kessler that the drastic change in the government's position proved the entire idea of imposing a national "quit smoking" programme was ill-conceived.

"Whether the price of the smoking cessation programme is US$130 billion or US$10 billion or 99 cents, it is still a fatally flawed programme," Philip Morris lawyer Ted Wells told the judge.

Wells said the quit smoking programme was a public health initiative that should be debated by Congress, but not a legal remedy designed to prevent any future wrongdoing.

"Your honour should not take up the government's invitation to engage in social policy engineering," Wells said.

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.

The companies 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.

A lawyer for the Justice Department made the scaled-back request yesterday as the government summed up its case in the eight-month trial that accuses major tobacco companies of conspiring to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking.

"Our concern is that now there are political considerations," said William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

A group of Democrats, including Lautenberg, called at a news conference for an inspector general investigation into possible political interference in the case.

Even with the reduced figure, Kessler on Tuesday questioned whether the quit smoking programme would satisfy an appeals court ruling from February that required any remedies to stop future misconduct rather than punish past behavior.

- REUTERS