Word: wigand
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Moore, a Democrat who took office in 1988 and is seeking testimony about tobacco's addictive properties and impact on health, believes the subpoena will protect Wigand from legal action by B&W for breaking his nondisclosure contract. But even more explosive than Wigand's deposition could be the documents that the subpoena requests him to produce. Those papers supposedly include evidence that B&W altered its research into the carcinogenic, toxic or addictive effects of tobacco, as well as a diary Wigand kept while working there. Wigand, says Moore, has "wanted to tell the truth...
...another point in the transcript, Wigand alleged that the company introduced into its cigarettes--at "a hundredfold the safety level"--a pipe-tobacco additive, coumarin, that it knew caused liver tumors in laboratory mice. And he described two threatening phone calls, one of which hinted at harm to his two children if he didn't "leave tobacco alone.'' B&W responded to the Daily News article by threatening legal action against CBS News for leaking it. A lawyer for the tobacco company warned that the network would be held responsible for any libel contained in the transcript...
...Minutes isn't the only place where Wigand is going--or would have gone--public. Last week he was served a subpoena in Mississippi. State attorney general Mike Moore wants him to testify in the preliminary phase of a Medicaid reimbursement suit against the tobacco industry. The case attempts to make the tobacco industry compensate state taxpayers for funds spent on the tobacco-related illness and death of indigent citizens...
...Wallace were no longer talking, after a published report suggested that CBS lawyers may have had legitimate cause for concern. According to the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes made a number of unusual arrangements with the tobacco-industry source--later revealed to be former Brown & Williamson executive Jeffrey S. Wigand. He was reportedly paid a $12,000 "consultant fee" for work he had done on a previous 60 Minutes segment; was promised that the network would indemnify him against any possible libel suit resulting from the story; and given a pledge that the interview would air only with his permission...
...libel. CBS lawyers feared the network might be vulnerable to a suit on the grounds of "tortious interference"--inducing one party to break a legal contract with another. Attorneys are divided over whether the network could successfully have been sued on such grounds. By paying money to Wigand and agreeing to indemnify him against a lawsuit, some contended, CBS had put itself at serious risk. Attorneys who have been involved in litigation against the tobacco industry, however, insisted that the network was needlessly timid. "I think it's appalling they would fold over such an iffy theory of law," says...