Biller Secret Toyota Documents "Published Material"; Pissing Match Breaks Out In Congress

Instead of solving the truly pressing needs of the land, Republicans and Democrats are publicly squabbling over the relevance and veracity of the Biller “smoking gun” documents that claim to prove that Toyota hid safety problems. U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter on Feb. 26 to Yoshimi Inaba, president and chief executive officer of Toyota Motor North America Inc., that said the documents provided “evidence that Toyota deliberately withheld relevant electronic records that it was legally required to produce” in lawsuits. Towns went on to say that the documents “shed some light on Toyota’s handling of the sudden unintended acceleration problem” and “indicate a systematic disregard for the law. Not so, says U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California. And he has a smoking gun of his own:

In a response dated March 2, Issa wrote that Towns’ conclusions were based on “conjecture and altered quotations” and that Towns’ letter “frequently misquotes and mischaracterizes” the documents. From a law.com article:

Issa cited Dallas plaintiffs attorney Todd Tracy, who reopened 17 personal injury cases based on Biller’s claims but voluntarily dismissed them after reviewing the documents. Tracy said that they failed to reveal any “concealment, destruction, or pattern of discovery abuse…In a telephone interview on Thursday, Tracy told The National Law Journal that Issa’s characterization was correct. One box contained 15 copies of the same deposition, Tracy said. Another contained research about bringing a wrongful termination suit. Tracey found 50 copies of Biller’s resume and e-mails that Biller wrote to colleagues, but no replies. “These were supposed to be the hottest documents in the history of jurisprudence, the way they were portrayed,” Tracy said. “The material was published material. Give me a break.”

In many years of litigating against Toyota, Tracy said, he never had any trouble securing discovery material. “I never had any trouble getting it at all,” Tracy said.

Towns had his comeback: “Mr. Issa’s comments do not address the central issue — has Toyota been illegally withholding documents for years. We need to continue cutting through the smokescreen put up by Toyota and keep our eyes on the ball.” Leave it to a congressman to use the word “smokescreen” with meaning.