Ms. Sharon Y. Eubanks

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  www.hklaw.com/Biographies/Bio.asp?ID=34592 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/7/2007    Last Visited: 12/7/2007  

  Sharon Y EubanksSenior Counsel
  
  Washington, D.C.: 202-457-7013 Email: sharon.eubanks@hklaw.com
  
  Sharon Y. Eubanks is Senior Counsel in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C. office where she is a member of the Community Services Team.Ms. Eubanks is an experienced litigator, having tried over 40 cases and argued over 100 appeals.Her greatest success to date was serving as lead counsel for the United States in the largest civil RICO enforcement action ever filed, United States v. Philip Morris, et al.

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  www.harpers.org/archive/2007/09/hbc-90001244 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2007    Last Visited: 9/22/2007  

  Sharon Eubanks, the key career attorney on the case, responded by quitting her Justice Department, where she had worked for years.

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  www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/26/politicizing_gover - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/26/2007    Last Visited: 4/26/2007  

  Sharon Y. Eubanks, the 22-year veteran career Justice Department lawyer who led Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies, told the Washington Post that three political appointees in Attorney General Gonzales's office undermined the government's case in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, which cost the federal government billions of dollars.

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  www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0322-07.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/22/2007    Last Visited: 3/22/2007  

  Sharon Eubanks, who served for 22 years as a lawyer at Justice
  
  Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.
  
  She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty.He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony.And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim a closing argument they had rewritten for her, she said.
  
  "The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said."And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public."
  
  Eubanks, who served for 22 years as a lawyer at Justice, said three political appointees were responsible for the last-minute shifts in the government's tobacco case in June 2005: then-Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum, then-Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and Keisler's deputy at the time, Dan Meron.
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  Eubanks, who retired from Justice in December 2005, said she is coming forward now because she is concerned about what she called the "overwhelming politicization" of the department demonstrated by the controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.Lawyers from Justice's civil rights division have made similar claims about being overruled by supervisors in the past.
  
  Eubanks said Congress should not limit its investigation to the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys.
  
  "Political interference is happening at Justice across the department," she said."When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration. . . . The rule of law goes out the window."
  
  McCallum, who is now the U.S. ambassador to Australia, said in an interview yesterday that congressional claims of political interference were rejected by the OPR investigation, for which Eubanks was questioned.
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  Eubanks said McCallum, Keisler and Meron largely ignored the case until it became clear that the government might win.
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  Afterward, McCallum, Keisler and Meron told Eubanks to approach other witnesses about softening their testimony, Eubanks said.
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  Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids was one of the witnesses whom Eubanks asked to change his testimony.
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  Two weeks before closing arguments in June, McCallum called for a meeting with Eubanks and her deputy, Stephen Brody, to discuss what McCallum described as "getting the number down" for the $130 billion penalty to create smoking-cessation programs.
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  During several tense late-night meetings, McCallum repeatedly refused to suggest a figure, Eubanks said, or give clear reasons for the reduction.
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  The most stressful moment, Eubanks said, came when the three appointees ordered her to read word for word a closing argument they had rewritten.The statement explained the validity of seeking a $10 billion penalty.
  
  "I couldn't even look at the judge," she said.

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  www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=50500 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/8/2008    Last Visited: 9/8/2008  

  Lead DOJ attorney Sharon Eubanks quit in protest after the trial, saying later that Bush administration officials meddled by reducing the monetary damages.

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  www.billiardsdigest.com/ccboard/showflat.php?Board=npr& - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/19/2007    Last Visited: 12/19/2007  

  Sharon Eubanks, who had aggressively pursued the racketeering case against the tobacco industry, was withdrawing effective Thursday, the government said in a one-sentence filing in U.S. District Court.
  
  Eubanks said her supervisors' failure to support her work on the tobacco case influenced her decision to retire after 22 years with the department.
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  "The political appointees to whom I report made this an easy decision," Eubanks told The Washington Post.She said her work on the tobacco case has been professionally rewarding but her politically appointed bosses "have been somewhat less than supportive of the team's efforts," the newspaper reported on Thursday.
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  Eubanks was the lead lawyer when the government sued the tobacco companies for covering up the dangers of smoking.The case is currently on appeal, but it was the largest civil suit ever filed, and she says that when high-level political appointees at the Justice Department concluded she was about to win and force the big tobacco companies to lay out billions to help smokers break the habit, they stopped her.
  
  She says they ordered a drastic cutback in the settlement she wanted, dictated her final argument and ordered her to read it, told her to drop her demand that key company officials be removed and ordered her to force key witnesses to change their stories.
  
  "It was more what they didn't want them to say," Eubanks says of the witnesses' testimony.
  
  Eubanks first told part of the story to The Washington Post, and it has already caused a furor at the capital.But what she finds odd is that despite the enormity of the case, she never discussed it with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
  
  Why not?"I think perhaps to be able to say, as he has said with the firings of the U.S. Attorneys, 'I didn't know what was going on.' Well, he need look no further than the mirror.He's responsible for that," Eubanks says.
  
  Internal investigators at the Justice Department concluded nothing improper took place during the case.But Congress isn't satisfied - and Eubanks is headed to Capitol Hill to tell her story.
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  EUBANKS: 'Yes.I don't serve at the pleasure of the President and most of the people who work at the Department don't, but they're being interfered with every day in their work."
  
  The timing of this revelation is quite staggering given the purge and the emerging picture of rampant politicization of the Justice Department by the Bush administration.As Ms. Eubanks testifies, politicization is an "every day" occurence under Bush rule.

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  www.insidevc.com/vcs/business/article/0,1375,VCS_128_32 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/12/2008    Last Visited: 9/23/2004  

  "The overriding purpose was to maximize defendants' profits through fraud," said Sharon Eubanks, director of the Justice Department Tobacco Litigation Trial Team.

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  www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=118 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/4/2007    Last Visited: 9/4/2007  

  Senior counsel Sharon Eubanks, a 22-year veteran attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, quit her job on the cusp of the most significant legal victory of her career.She left in December 2005, just eight months before a judge would decide the huge tobacco case she had devoted six years to prosecuting.
  
  She was not the only lawyer to leave a Justice post abruptly, citing interference from politicians in the Bush administration.
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  Eubanks' team pursued the defendants vigorously -- until a White House directive demanded that she change course, forcing her team to abruptly reduce its financial demand from $130 billion to $10 billion, she says.This, and other micromanagement from above, caused her to seek refuge in retirement, Eubanks explains.
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  For the five months leading up to trial, Eubanks, Brody, and several of their expert witnesses worked to create exhibits on smoking, basic respiration and other matters with Denver-based trial exhibits company Z-Axis, led by CEO Alan Triebitz.
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  Other interactive exhibits emphasized statistics and research, Eubanks says.
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  Though the exhibit was simple, the presentation emphasized the reality behind dry-sounding statistics, Eubanks says.
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  Though disappointed, Eubanks understands why Kessler denied damages.
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  "The judge felt that her hands were tied by precedent of the appellate court, and she explained her frustrations in her opinion quite eloquently," Eubanks says.
  
  Although appeals and post-trial motions are pending, published news reports estimate the total cost of litigation at more than $100 million for each side.
  
  The dismissal of monetary penalties did not diminish Eubanks' criticisms of the Bush administration that led to her resignation.In the wake of the Justice Department prosecutors' firings, and subsequent hearings over Gonzales' actions, Eubanks has become more publicly vocal about the events leading up to her departure.
  
  "Given the lack of support from those above me at Justice, I felt I could no longer be effective as an advocate," Eubanks says."It was the right decision at the time, and I don't regret it."
  
  Today, Eubanks, 51, lives just outside Washington, D.C., in McLean, Va. Of course, she's working on a book about her experience at the Department of Justice.

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  www.aishamusic.com/Judiciary_Report/how_george_bush_des - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/12/2008    Last Visited: 3/4/2008  

  Former U.S. Attorney Sharon Eubanks
  
  Another example of this practice of yours in looking out for the corporations at the citizens' expense is illustrated in Big Tobacco.
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  A U.S. attorney, Sharon Eubanks, even spoke out and stated she was instructed to rig award amounts to victims, reducing them by tens of billions of dollars, to protect Big Tobacco.

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  www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/23/eveningnews/main2602 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/23/2007    Last Visited: 3/24/2007  

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  Sharon Eubanks, former prosecutor
  
  (CBS) A career Justice Department lawyer - not a political appointee, but a career prosecutor who had been at the department for two decades - has come forward to say she wasn't fired, she quit a year and a half ago because high-level political appointees at Justice forced her to do what she didn't want to do: Go easy on the tobacco companies in a lawsuit that may yet cost those companies billions of dollars.
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  Eubanks was the lead lawyer when the government sued the tobacco companies for covering up the dangers of smoking.The case is currently on appeal, but it was the largest civil suit ever filed, and she says that when high-level political appointees at the Justice Department concluded she was about to win and force the big tobacco companies to lay out billions to help smokers break the habit, they stopped her.
  
  She says they ordered a drastic cutback in the settlement she wanted, dictated her final argument and ordered her to read it, told her to drop her demand that key company officials be removed and ordered her to force key witnesses to change their stories.
  
  "It was more what they didn't want them to say," Eubanks says of the witnesses' testimony.
  
  Eubanks first told part of the story to The Washington Post, and it has already caused a furor at the capital.But what she finds odd is that despite the enormity of the case, she never discussed it with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
  
  Why not?"I think perhaps to be able to say, as he has said with the firings of the U.S. Attorneys, 'I didn't know what was going on.' Well, he need look no further than the mirror.He's responsible for that," Eubanks says.
  
  Internal investigators at the Justice Department concluded nothing improper took place during the case.But Congress isn't satisfied - and Eubanks is headed to Capitol Hill to tell her story.
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  Eye To Eye: Sharon Eubanks
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  Eye To Eye: Sharon Eubanks |
  
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