Dennis A Vaughn
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Dennis Vaughn was a lawyer-lobbyist for the Tobacco Institute. He was an associate of lawyer-lobbyist (and media tour regular) John Fox at two successive law firms, Pettit & Martin and Pillsbury Madison & Sutro. They both later shifted to another law firm which did a lot of work for tobacco, Womble Carlyle.
Vaughn was initially enlisted to replace John Fox on a media-speaking tour, and he proved so successful in pushing the tobacco industry line that they enlisted him as a regular speaker in his own right. Fox had a regular contract with the Tobacco Institute to allocate a certain time each month to these speaking tours, and since they shared the same law firms, and since these tours became an expanding project for the Institute, Fox and Vaughn probably arranged to share out the work between them.
Documents & Timelines
1988 to 1990
1988 to 1993 Diana L Avedon at the Tobacco Institute ran a major media-tour operation called the Scientific Witness Teams. This operation circulated variable teams of TI staff spokespersons, contracted sham air-testing company staff, one or more Covington & Burling lawyers, and other more specialied tobacco lobbyists. They were used in two ways:
- As fire-fighters, to turn up in some town or region when problem about public or workplace smoking was arising, and do media interviews.
- To make regular media tours through various parts of the country to promote Tobacco Institute propaganda.
They were paid to visit major cities in each state, where the Regional Tobacco Institute staff would have arranged radio, TV or news coverage, and set up meetings with key officials at the local councils, counter air-ports (smoking bans) and meet with the editorial boards of media outlets. This is Diana Avedon's list of the key contractors on these group media-tours. It had the advantage of each participant getting to know the others, which introduced a collegial element to their shared message distortions.
| 1993 Jun 1 TI list of "Witness/Expert Appearances Scientific/Legal/Spokespersons." | ||
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Lauria Assistant to the Tobacco Institute President, | Mike Buckley lawyer-lobbyist with Covington & Burling, | Simon Turner IAQ witness/executive of ACVA/HBI, |
| Gio Batta Gori Corrupt science researcher at Nat. Cancer Institute He ran the Tobacco Working Group for the industry until fired. | Bill Wordham Tobacco Institute's Media spokesperson | Gray Robertson Partner in ACVA then owner of HBI Lifelong contractor for sham air-testing with TI |
| Peter Binnie owner/partner of ACVA and HBI He sold his share of HBI to Gray Robertson | Larry Holcomb Ran sham air-testing company (airlines) Holcomb Environmental Services | John C Fox Lawyer lobbyist for TI via Pettit & Martin Later also through Pillsbury Madison & Sutro |
| Richard Silberman Healthy Buildings International (HBI) spokesman on 'sick buildings' | Walter Merryman TI Public Relations, then Issues Management Later VP at the Tobacco Institute. | David Remes legal strategist from the main law firm Covington & Burling (C&B) |
| Frank Powell National Energy Management Institute (NEMI) organiser who worked for TI | Melinda L Sidak C&B lawyer; strategist in science corruption Worked on recruitment of scientists. | Rudy Cole He ran restaurant front-group RSVP He organised lobby against smoking bans. |
| Larry Halfen Environmental Consultants; TI witness | ||
| An attached 1991 Witness List includes | ||
| Brennan Dawson Media relations at the Tobacco Institute | Jeff Seckler Exec. in charge of HBI's sham air testing He later turned whistleblower. | Jim Goold Lawyer sent on media tours by the Tobacco institute to train witnesses. |
| Joe Pedelty worked for Holcomb Environmental Services Did sham air-testing for TI | Jolly Ann Davidson NASBE school/educational lobbyist, ran "Helping Youth Decide" program for TI | Dick Wagner GMU economics professor (Tollison aide) Key in cash-for-comments network |
| Bernadette Davidson lawyer and media lobbyist with John Fox She was retained by TI as IAQ witness | Walter J Decker Ran Toxicology Consultancy Services Provide witness services for the TI | |
| Bill Orzechowski TI Director of Economic Issues He was ex-US Chambers of Commerce | Mike Davis (Dallas Texas) Prof of Econ. and Business Management Witness for the Tobacco Institute. | Morris Coats Prof Economics West Virginia. Worked in cash-for-comments net. |
| The main long document has this 1989 witness list attached with the addition (to above) | ||
| Dwight Lee economics professor and leader of cash-for-comments economists network | David A Weeks Boise Idaho physician, TI Witness Partner of S James Kilpatrick in Per-Med Corp. | Alan Kassman Ex tobacco industry scientist. Retrained to provide legislative and media briefings. |
| Robert Tollison GMU professor of economics who ran the cash-for-comments economists network | Richard Wagner Economics professor and TI witness. Tollison's understudy in c-for-c network | Jack E Peterson Industrial hygienist; ran Peterson Assoc. Also worked for Dow Chemicals |
| Bestype Consulting Corporation they ran TI's "Sick Building Syndrome" and "Tight Building Syndrome" seminars. | Dennis A Vaughn Lawyer-lobbyist for Tobacco Institute, Associate of John Fox at P&M and PM & Sutro | |
| The 1988 List includes most of above with the additions of: | ||
| Alan W Katzenstein Biostatistician with Katzenstein Assoc. Witness for Tobacco Institute, | David Brenton Ran the Smokers Rights Alliance His wife Sue had her focus on airline smoking. | |
| http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/otz92b00/pdf | ||
[Numerous other documents detail the day-to-day organization of these groups spread over five or more years.]
1989 Dec This is a Tobacco Institute list of outside consultants available to the cigarette companies if they had need to consult with some trusted acolytes. Template:TI ConsultantsList1990
