McCallum Questioned About Tobacco Case

Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum cups his ear to hear a question during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington in this May 13, 2004 file photo. A former Justice Department lawyer says McCallum misled Congress about a landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File) (Lauren Burke - AP)

WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department official who slashed the amount of money being sought from tobacco companies made misleading statements to Congress, says a former government lawyer who handled a landmark lawsuit against the industry.

The comments by attorney Sharon Eubanks follow Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum's decision a year ago to downsize a proposed smoking cessation program from $130 billion to $10 billion. That's the amount the government wants a judge to order cigarette companies to pay.

A month ago, McCallum sent written statements explaining his actions to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Australia. The Senate subsequently confirmed McCallum, a former Yale classmate of President Bush, to the post.

Eubanks, who ran the department's tobacco litigation team, retired from government and now works for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The private group sued the department and questioned McCallum for several hours Tuesday about documents he kept on the tobacco case.

The group wants to find out whether White House influence was brought to bear in the pending tobacco lawsuit.

"I don't remember ever receiving any directive from the White House about anything that had to do with the tobacco case," McCallum said in his sworn videotaped deposition.

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility said last month that McCallum's conduct was not influenced by any political considerations.

Internal Justice Department e-mails obtained by The Associated Press show that the White House OK'd an op-ed piece by McCallum in USA Today defending the department's drastic cut in the amount it was demanding the tobacco companies pay.

"Please hold up. The White House wanted some changes," one Justice Department employee wrote regarding McCallum's op-ed piece.

"WH says it's good to go," said an e-mail an hour later by another department employee.

In his testimony about the Justice Department suit against the tobacco companies, McCallum refused to say whether he had notes of contacts with industry representatives. He said he was barred from answering by an order the judge had issued in the case. The order itself is sealed, McCallum added.

On Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesman, Charles Miller, said "it's absolutely incorrect" to suggest that McCallum "was anything but truthful in what he said to the Senate."