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| Image Credit: https://www.freedonziger.com/ |
“What Chevron and its law firms are doing to Steven is the most grotesque thing I have observed in the American legal system in 40 years of practice. Attacking the other side’s lawyers is what defendants do if they have no defense on the merits.
Chevron has made no secret of the fact that its only hope is, in their words, to ‘demonize Donziger.’ I have never met anyone more courageous or resilient than Steven Donziger.”
– Attorney Richard Friedman, President of the Inner Circle of Advocates
For the last decade, Chevron and dozens of its law firms have been trying to undermine my work as an environmental justice lawyer and jail me for helping Amazon communities in Ecuador win a historic $9.5 billion pollution judgement against the company. These scorched-earth attacks threaten to destroy my professional career. I need your help urgently to fight back.
As background, I have spent much of my life helping Indigenous peoples and rural communities in Ecuador’s Amazon win the pollution judgment against Chevron for the deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste onto their ancestral lands. Chevron discharged the waste into streams and rivers relied on by local residents for drinking water, bathing, and fishing. Thousands have either died of cancer or face a grave risk of death from oil-related diseases. After an 8-year trial in Ecuador where Chevron accepted jurisdiction, the Supreme Court of Ecuador in 2013 found the company committed a mass industrial poisoning to save $3 per barrel of oil. Chevron refuses to pay the judgement and recently threatened the Indigenous peoples with a “lifetime of litigation” unless they drop their claims. As part of a vicious retaliation campaign, Chevron decided to try to demonize me by using at least 60 law firms, 2,000 lawyers, six public relations firms, and multiple fake websites to smear my reputation. The company’s goal is to silence my advocacy, bankrupt my family, and intimidate activists and environmental allies.
Given my refusal to capitulate, Chevron upped the ante in 2019 by targeting me with the first corporate prosecution in the history of the United States. Pro-industry judge Lewis Kaplan (a former tobacco industry lawyer) appointed private lawyers at the Chevron law firm Seward & Kissel to “prosecute” me on contempt charges after I appealed a shocking and unprecedented order from Kaplan that I turn over my computer and cell phone for review by Chevron. Even though the charges had been rejected by the federal prosecutor, the Chevron private prosecutor (Rita Glavin) promptly had me locked up at home. I now have been under detention at home for over two years where the longest sentence ever given a lawyer for my supposed “crime” is 90 days. I believe Kaplan’s order violated the most basic sanctity of the attorney-client privilege and placed my vulnerable clients in the Amazon at severe risk of grave bodily harm or even death.
The restrictions on my life have been devastating to me, my wife Laura, and young son Matthew. As I write this, I have been confined to our apartment with an ankle bracelet shackled to my leg 24/7. It never comes off; I sleep with it, shower with it, and eat with it. It even beeps and wakes us up in the middle night when the battery runs low. This obviously is frightening for us on a personal level, but the ankle bracelet also represents a direct attack by the fossil fuel industry on the rule of law and the free speech rights of all advocates.
The irregularities in my case run even deeper. The judge overseeing Kaplan’s contempt charges, Loretta Preska, was not assigned through random lot as required by court rules. She was appointed by Judge Kaplan directly. This also was by design: Preska is a leader of the pro-corporate Federalist Society to which Chevron is a major funder. Preska then denied me a jury of my peers, refused to let me present my defense, and has prevented my lawyers from taking discovery related to the flagrant conflicts of interest involving the private prosecutor and Chevron. Preska recently allowed the Chevron private prosecutor to orchestrate a contempt “trial” against me that was a charade: it was financed in large part by Chevron’s law firms and Preska was reading the newspaper while witnesses were testifying. She predictably found me “guilty” and has said she plans to sentence me on October 1. Dealing with this trial, organizing an appeal, protecting my family, and also advancing the underlying case against Chevron on behalf of the Ecuadorian communities entails considerable financial cost.
The outcome of this battle is critical not just for me and others involved but also for the larger global struggle for environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and Free Speech. To meet these challenges, we need financial support urgently. If we can demonstrate that a human rights lawyer can beat back a powerful corporation with grassroots funding, it will create enormous possibilities for the environmental and corporate accountability movements and will dramatically increase the odds we can save our planet. It will also increase the odds that I can get through this and save my family in the process.
Whatever support you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!