WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The lead attorney in the U.S. government's landmark tobacco industry racketeering case says her bosses offered little support.
Sharon Y. Eubanks, who retired from the Justice Department Wednesday, led a group of career government lawyers who recommended a $130 billion penalty against the tobacco industry this summer. That money was in part to fund smoking-cessation programs for millions of Americans.
Her supervisors, appointees at the department, scaled back the proposal to $10 billion, The Washington Post said.
The shift triggered an uproar in Congress during the closing days of the tobacco trial in June, when requests from lawmakers prompted an investigation into whether there was political interference.
In the unprecedented 6-year-old lawsuit, the government alleged that the United States' largest tobacco firms engaged in a half-century-long conspiracy to conceal the health hazards of smoking and to hook new generations on the habit. A judge has yet to rule.
