NASHUA, N.H. — Today, Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington announced she has landed an endorsement from former Purdue Pharma lawyer, and former U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder.
Fittingly, Holder has a history of advocating for Purdue Pharma, which Warmington lobbied on behalf of, calling OxyContin a “miracle drug” at the same time that state health officials and law enforcement were sounding the alarm over how addictive and dangerous it was.
Holder helped Purdue Pharma skirt accountability for its deceptive marketing of OxyContin when the company faced a lawsuit by the state of West Virginia. Much like Opioid Lobbyist Warmington, Holder fought on Purdue Pharma’s behalf at the same time that multiple states, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, were taking action against the company.
“Once again, Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington shows her brazen disregard for the harm her lies on behalf of Purdue Pharma caused by accepting an endorsement from fellow Purdue champion Eric Holder,” said Ayotte campaign spokesman John Corbett. “As voters reject the Opioid Lobbyist, it’s no surprise she’s leaning on her Purdue Pharma rolodex in an attempt to breathe life into her failing campaign.”
This is the second politician with a Purdue Pharma past who has endorsed Warmington. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who was partner at a law firm that represented Purdue Pharma in high-profile lawsuits and as Attorney General, laterrecused himself from his state’s settlement negotiations with the company.
From The Washington Post, October 2019:
West Virginia’s lawyers were up against a powerhouse defense team. Purdue would bring in Eric H. Holder Jr., a former deputy U.S. attorney general who would go on to advise Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and ultimately lead Obama’s Justice Department.
“The doctors freely chose to prescribe OxyContin,” Holder told McDowell County Circuit Court Judge Booker T. Stephens in October 2004. “Abusers freely chose to abuse it.”
There would be no trial.
From Mother Jones, January 2009:
“This suit was a serious threat to the drugmaker, and it eventually called in Holder. And in November 2004, the morning that the case was about to go to trial, Holder helped negotiate a settlement. Working in the judge’s chambers in West Virginia, he forged an agreement under which the firm would have to pay $10 million over four years into drug abuse and education programs in West Virginia. Purdue would not have to admit any wrongdoing. (Days earlier, the firm had offered the state about $2 million to settle; [then-Attorney General] McGraw had turned down Purdue and had not bothered to produce a counter-offer.)”
…
The settlement was a big win for the company. Ten million dollars was a piddling amount compared to what Purdue was reaping from OxyContin sales. More important, this settlement helped keep the lid on the firm’s criminal activities. There would be no trial–and no public release of documents or testimony about the company’s actions, which were already being investigated by federal prosecutors.
…
Yet Holder had helped the company slip past McGraw’s charges. And that permitted the drugmaker to continue its fraudulent ways until the Justice Department finally stopped them.
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