Chevron V. Donziger: An update
Discover more from TRANSFORM with Marianne Williamson
Chevron V. Donziger: An update
Why it should matter to all of us.
We all know environmental degradation is an existential threat to our species. We’ve heard it enough times. We get it.
We also know fossil fuel companies are resisting the changes we must make in order to avoid overwhelming catastrophes. We get that too.
What we don’t always realize is the lengths to which fossil fuel companies will go in order to silence the resistors, shut down the opposition, and avoid consequences for their egregious actions. When we do know - when we’re informed - it should awaken all of us. For what they can do to anyone, they could one day do to you.
Steven Donziger is a Harvard law school graduate who went to Ecuador in the 1990’s. He was traveling with a team of lawyers and doctors to view the horrific evidence that Texaco, an oil giant since bought by Chevron, had poisoned a huge swath of the Ecuadorian Amazon during oil drilling in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. What they saw were the results of a massive and man-made environmental disaster that poisoned the water, earth and food of tens of thousands of people. Worst of all, the evidence indicated it was done deliberately as part of an engineering plan to save $3 per barrel. This horror was not an accident.
Ultimately, Steven led a team of lawyers in procuring a $9.5B judgement against Chevron that was affirmed by the Ecuadorian Supreme Court. Yet that was not the end of the story. For Chevron - while note even arguing the veracity of the disaster - chose not to pay the judgment. Instead, they chose to come after the lead lawyer who held them accountable: namely, Steven Donziger. In Donziger’s words, “The company’s goal is to silence my advocacy, bankrupt my family, and intimidate activists and environmental allies.”
Donziger has now spent over 780 days under house arrest. He stands to be sentenced on Oct. 1 for contempt of court charges stemming from his refusal to turn over to Chevron his cell phone and computer containing confidential data on environmental activists here and in Ecuador. The Department of Justice having chosen not even to pursue the case, it was turned over- incredibly -to Chevron itself to prosecute.
Most Americans would not believe that here in the United States, a corporation could literally use an American court to criminally prosecute its critics. And yet that is exactly what has happened: a show trial that leaves an American environmental lawyer punished harshly and at risk of imprisonment, for the not-to-be-tolerated crime of standing up to Chevron.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has not intervened in this private corporate prosecution, although he should. The request has been simply that he return the case from Chevron’s law firm to the US justice system. He has not chosen to do so despite pleas from Senators, Congresspeople, legal groups and Nobel Laureates. And this point you and I have to speak up, and speak up loudly - for justice, for the earth, and for Steven Donziger.
Visit FreeDonziger.com for further information about how you can help. Plus, if you’re in NY, show up on October 1 for a rally outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan to support Steven on the day of his sentencing.
#FreeStevenDonziger…for him, for the earth, and for all of us.
Audio of the interview here:
Chevron V. Donziger: An update
This case reminds me Ralph Nader. If we have today seat belts in our car, it's because of him. He had to fight for it. Perhaps Mr Steven Donziger should contact him.
Ralph Nader : ¨The son of Lebanese immigrants, Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and received a law degree from Harvard University in 1958. Nader soon became interested in unsafe vehicle designs that led to high rates of automobile accidents and fatalities. He became a consultant to the U.S. Department of Labor in 1964, and in 1965 he published Unsafe at Any Speed, which criticized the American auto industry in general for its unsafe products and attacked General Motors’ (GM’s) Corvair automobile in particular. The book became a best seller and led directly to the passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which gave the government the power to enact safety standards for all automobiles sold in the United States.
GM went to exceptional lengths to discredit Nader, including hiring a private detective to follow him. Nader sued for invasion of privacy, and the case was settled after GM admitted wrongdoing before a U.S. Senate committee. With the funds he received from the lawsuit and aided by impassioned activists, who became known as Nader’s Raiders, he helped establish a number of advocacy organizations, most notably Public Citizen. Nader’s Raiders became involved in such issues as nuclear safety, international trade, regulation of insecticides, meat processing, pension reform, land use, and banking.¨ Read More
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ralph-Nader
Website : https://nader.org/
This is exactly what the FinancialMob is doing to lawyers who helped the homeowners during the Great Financial Crime Spree of 2008. If you speak out against any CorporateMob, beware.