CREATED 1/1/2011
WARNING:
This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.
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OPINION ONLY
Griffin B ( Judge) Bell
[Judge]
(Griggin ) — President Carter's Attorney General who decided the tobacco fields were richer on the other side of the fence. — He was the US Attorney General under President Carter, and a lawyer with King & Spalding, one of the tobacco industry's main firms. He was involved in attempting to recover the documents taken from Brown & Williamson, which found their way to Stanford Glantz — and became the basis of the UCSF Galen library tobacco document collection.
Bell was a partner in the Atlanta-based lawfirm King & Spalding, which has represented Brown and Williamson for many years in product liability litigation and general matters. The company even opened a London office to service the B&W British-American Tobacco links.
In January 1988 a paralegal, Merrill Williams was hired by a Louisville law firm to help index millions of pages of B&W's confidential, internal communications. Later he was assigned to B&Ws product-liability defense team to analyze and classify documents in connection with the defense of S&H lawsuits. He had executied confidentiality and non disclosure agreements, but he begins to secretly remove and make copies of many of the documents which eventually were released to the public.
Griffin Bell was assigned to helping the company in its efforts at damage control against these incriminating internal company documents.
Bell also testified before Congress on behalf of Brown and Williamson in opposition to legislation which would have repealed the preemption against smoker-death product liability suits.
Some key documents 1988 Jun 2: Draft Statements to be made by Charles Whitley and David Satterfield III who are appearing for the Tobacco Institute. This also includes Statements of Dr Raymond D Harbison and Dr Gerald H Goldhaber These experts were all appearing at the Luken Subcommittee hearing.
Judge Griffin Bell was also to be a witness at the June 8 hearing, and this document bundle from Covington & Burling included his Q&A training material. [Griffin Be1l was US Attorney-General under President Carter. He is now a partner in King and Spalding, the law firm which has represented Brown and .Williamson for many years in product liability litigation and general matters.] Q: In light of what we have learned in the Cipollone trial about tobacco company misconduct, in particular their unlawfully holding safer cigarettes from the market, how can we trust these same companies to develop safer products when they hav e no legal liability for failure to do so?
A: I do not believe that the evidence in the Cipollone case shows that any company unlawfully withheld safer cigarettes from the market. In our market-based economy, companies develop and bring to market products when they determine that there is a demand for these products. Given all of the adverse publicity that surrounds the use of cigarettes, I have great confidence that in the highly competitive tobacco industry, the companies will scramble to bring to market any product which they believe will be widely accepted by the consumer. The Cipollone law suit against the tobacco companies is generally regarded as the turning point in tobacco litigation, since the judge on the case found unconscionable conduct on behalf of the tobacco companies, and forced the release of many industry documents. [They are feeding a prominent judge some judicial statements ... and also paying him to be a witness on behalf of the industry. If you are a lawyer, these pages are worth reading.]  
1988 June 8: Testimony of Griffin B Bell before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism and Hazardous Materials, House Committee on
Energy and Commerce,
Griffin Be1l, US Attorney General under Carter, is a partner in King and Spalding, which has represented Brown and .Williamson for many years in product liability litigation and general matters. Bell testified before Congress on behalf of Brown and Williamson in opposition to legislation which would have repealed the preemption against smoker-death product liability suits.
1996 Aug: King & Spalding [2063609959/9975]
1994 May 17: ex Attorney-General Helping B&W over confidential documents stolen by 'paralegal' (Merril Williams?) [2074772258]
1995 Dec 11: Shows how chummy they were. Yet this is only document of Bell,G + King + Spalding [680062302]
• National Legal Center for the Public Interest NLCPI
• US Attorney Gen under Carter is partner in King and Spalding, rep B&W [20246708556]
• Bell, Griffin
US Att Gen under Carter
Partner in King & Spalding representing B&W [2024670856] ()
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WORTH READING
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