more on Robert McCallum

a couple of weeks ago i wrote about the odd situation with australian ambassadors - including the fact that the spot has been vacant since Feb05:

"Bush has nominated Robert McCallum - he's a skull&boneser from Bush's year at Yale. He's also famous for being a former tobacco industry lawyer who jagged a job as Acting US Deputy Attorney General when he 'negotiated' the surprise fine in the anti-racketeering case against tobacco companies of $10bn down from an expected $150bn."

now this from AP:

"A federal judge ruled yesterday that Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. must undergo questioning in a lawsuit by a nonprofit group seeking records about the Justice Department's conduct in a landmark case against the tobacco industry.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued last year after the department ignored the testimony of one of its own witnesses in the tobacco trial and reduced the amount the Bush administration is seeking from the tobacco industry from $130 billion to $10 billion.
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In its lawsuit filed in October, CREW asked for records of all contacts between Justice Department officials and the White House concerning the tobacco litigation and records of all contacts between McCallum and his old law firm in Atlanta, which has done work for the tobacco industry.