This data contains a summary of comments investment bankers made about credit rating agencies while pitching their underwriting services for tobacco bonds from 1999 onward. The comments come from 140 underwriting pitches ProPublica collected under public records requests in more than a dozen states. The data shows that Wall Street pressed S&P, Moody’s and Fitch to assign more favorable credit ratings to their deals and bragged that the raters complied. 

ProPublica used this data in "Bankers Brought Rating Agencies ‘To Their Knees’ On Tobacco Bonds".