If the federal government ends up with a hollow victory in its case against the tobacco industry, or if it loses the case altogether, an important part of the blame should go to what the Justice Department did or, rather, failed to do in its closing argument last week.
When department lawyers summed up their racketeering case against tobacco companies, they appeared set to demand $130 billion from the industry over 25 years to fund a national campaign to help people quit smoking. The $130 billion was the recommendation from their own key witness UW- Madison Professor Michael Fiore.
Office of Strategic Communication