Pete Sessions: “My view is, if Minnesota wants to opt out of this deal, maybe they ought to be treated separately. But for the 49 other…”

“My view is, if Minnesota wants to opt out of this deal, maybe they ought to be treated separately. But for the 49 other States who are in it, who have asked for this review and legislation by Congress, I think it is absolutely critical that we deal with attorney's fees. I repeat, I have sought on multiple occasions, and other Senators have, to find out what the agreements are that they have with these attorneys. They are hiding those agreements. They have been very secret about it. It's a secret agreement between plaintiffs' attorneys representing the States and the tobacco industry. And only today has the Senator from Minnesota indicated that they have a 20-percent contingency fee. That means that whatever recovery Minnesota has of all these billions that we are looking for and hope that we can recover, of all those billions, 20 percent of it will go to attorneys.”