Friday, March 27, 2009

As New Lawyer, Senator Defended Big Tobacco

Before her life in politics started, Kristin Rutnik, now Kristin Gillibrand, worked for Philip Morris helping them protect themselves from federal investigation. Gillibrand has refused to talked about her work with Philip Morris, canceling all interviews with the New York Times.

2 comments:

charliewarzel said...

i don't know what i think about this. it definately matters, however, as a young lawyer, it'd be hard to turn down such a big case. Thats a lot of money, you know? I don't know...

Does anyone else think that nothing good can come from filling senate seats after an election?

Charlie Ruff said...

I would like to see special elections held for Senate seats. That said, I don't really care that Gillibrand had Philip Morris as a client.

Philip Morris sells a legal product and their conduct was legal as well. Gillibrand wasn't the only lawyer to represent them, the entire tobacco industry enlisted some high-profile law firms to represent them.

Gillibrand represented Philip Morris. It's not like she was out on the streets handing out fliers in support of cigarettes.

I can't really blame her for canceling the interviews with the NYT after they ran this rather smearing 4 page article.

As much as some people hate her, she is making friends on the Hill and its possible that she is around for a bit (we'll see what happens with Cuomo). Last night, for example, I know that she was at a fund-raising dinner with Schumer and Hoyer.