"That's the big gap in the government's case," he said. "You heard a lot about the past. But the government has ignored the profound changes in the industry."
The Justice Department argues that it only must show a past pattern of conspiracy that probably would be repeated.
Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr., center, with Daniel Meron left, and Matthew Zabel, talks to reporters after opening statements.
(Lauren Burke -- AP)
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Justice Department lawyer Frank Marine told Kessler that the industry's campaign of "misrepresentations, half-truths and outright lies" has had "devastating consequences" and noted that nearly 500,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related illnesses.
He noted a 1978 Lorillard memo in which a marketing official trumpeted the "fantastic" success of the Newport brand with teenagers: "The base of our business is the high school student."
Matt Myers, of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the government's case is probably the most comprehensively documented picture of the tobacco industry's behavior ever presented.
"If there was a scintilla of doubt left that the industry had not engaged in a decades-long, coordinated campaign to deceive the American public, the documents cited by the Justice Department today eliminate even that shred of doubt," Myers said.
Bush administration officials, including Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, originally considered the government case weak, and Congress once proposed cutting the Justice Department budget for tobacco litigation. But the suit was revived after significant criticism that the Bush administration should not let the industry duck a trial.
Yesterday, Ashcroft released a statement praising his lawyers' work and said he looked forward to an end to the marketing of tobacco to teenagers and to taxpayers' recouping industry profits. "The government's case against the tobacco industry is an important effort to prevent fraudulent activity and uphold corporate integrity," he said.
