Talk:Kirsten Gillibrand

Tobacco industry involvement
Kirsten Gillibrand, under her maiden name Kirsten Rutnik (sometimes misspelled "Rutnick"), was involved at high levels in the legal affairs of Philip Morris. In 1998, while an attorney with the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell, she served on Philip Morris' Privilege and Crime Fraud Committee, which was comprised of attorneys from both inside and outside Philip Morris. A description of the Crime Fraud Committee's function is contained in a July 18, 1998 Philip Morris email authored by another attorney representing PM, Inc. and Philip Morris Companies, Thomas J. Frederick. Frederick wrote,

"... I believe the group below comprises what I'm calling the Philip Morris Crime/Fraud Issues Committee, which, as I understand it, should be consulted with respect to just about any privilege issue that might arise in any case, but especially crime/fraud issues:
 * Bill Allinder--Shook, Hardy & Bacon
 * Noel Clinard--Hunton & Williams
 * David Florendo--Philip Morris
 * John Mulderig--Philip Morris
 * David Murphy--Wachtell Lipton
 * Kirsten Rutnick--Davis Polk
 * Leslie Wharton--Arnold & Porter"

A fax cover sheet sent to Kirsten Rutnik (Gillibrand) further confirms that she was a participant on Philip Morris' Privilege and Crime Fraud Committee, along with the other advisors mentioned in the email above. Several of her colleagues on this Committee were partners at their respective law firms.

Two of her colleagues on the Privilege and Crime Fraud Committee, John Mulderig of Philip Morris' Legal Department and Leslie Wharton of the law firm Arnold and Porter, co-authored an article about the strategic danger to corporations of plaintiffs challenging privilege claims in lawsuits, which gives insight into potential areas of concern of members of PM's Privilege and Crime Fraud Committee.

Gillibrand served on the elite Crime Fraud Committee during a particularly contentious and perilous time for Philip Morris and other American tobacco companies. In June, 1997, the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight had filed a Minority Staff Report charging that attorneys at the major U.S. tobacco companies had misused attorney-client privilege to shield important documents regarding the health implications of their products from the public and thus advance corporate crime or fraud. The Committee wrote:

It appears that lawyers have been at the heart of a tobacco industry strategy to cast doubt on whether smoking causes cancer and to keep detrimental research on human health effects from the public. Lawyers can function largely out of view because they can shield their work product behind the attorney-client privilege. Several courts, however, have recently been presented with attorney-client documents for in camera review. These courts have determined that the tobacco industry's attorney-client documents contain evidence of a tobacco industry crime or fraud -- and should therefore be disclosed.

In 1998, Kirsten Rutnik (Gillibrand) consulted with Roger G. Whidden, Vice President of Philip Morris Worldwide Regulatory Affairs and Associate General Counsel for Philip Morris, regarding a draft of a document on nitrosamines, one of the carcinogenic components in tobacco smoke.

Kirsten Rutnik (Gillibrand) was also in contact with Dr. Wolf Reininghaus, General Manager of Philip Morris' overseas contract research lab, the Institut fur Biologische Forschung, or INBIFO, in Cologne, Germany - The lab specialized in performing inhalation toxicology tests on secondhand tobacco smoke. Between 1981 and 1989 scientists at INBIFO performed at least 115 studies for PM on the toxicity of secondhand tobacco smoke, but PM never published the results of the studies. The tests revealed that secondhand smoke is four times more toxic by inhalation and 2-6 times more tumorigenic on skin than mainstream smoke (the smoke the smoker himself inhales).

Gillibrand (Rutnik) visited INBIFO in person in January-Feburary 1996, with PM attorney John Mulderig

Rutnik visited INBIFO again on March 12, 1998.