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FILE PHOTO. A protest against Chevron’s RICO trial in New York, in October 2013. REUTERS\/Carlo Allegri<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
The prosecution of environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who helped Ecuadorian victims of Chevron leaks seek compensation, shows the threat corporate involvement in the US justice system poses to all, his supporters have warned.<\/p>\n
Donziger is currently being tried for criminal contempt of court, and his defense has little doubt that he will receive a guilty verdict. Supporters of the lawyer see the case as little more than a revenge campaign by oil giant Chevron.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, Donziger helped 30,000 people in Ecuador secure a court ruling that awarded a multibillion-dollar compensation for environmental damage caused by drilling. The corporation maneuvered to avoid paying the damages, instead going after the lawyer and his clients.<\/p>\n
US actress Susan Sarandon and author Marianne Williamson are among an army of public figures and ordinary people taking Donziger\u2019s side. As his current case draws to a conclusion, they appeared on the \u2018Rising\u2019 program this week to explain how the lawyer\u2019s demise sets a precedent that endangers anybody who dares to go against big money interests in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they can torture somebody the way they [did Donziger] \u2013 he has not been able to make a living, he\u2019s been under house arrest, and all those legal fees \u2013 then they can send that message to other activists and journalists,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Sarandon said.<\/p>\n Once a corporation is involved, the justice system just goes out of the window\u2026 That threatens all of us, really.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Part of Chevron\u2019s strategy to avoid paying the Ecuadorians was to accuse Donziger and his clients of racketeering, claiming the original ruling was obtained illegally. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the District Court for the Southern District of New York passed a guilty verdict in 2014. Among other things, he ordered Donziger to hand over communications with his clients to Chevron\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n He refused, arguing that it would violate client-attorney privileges and give the company insight into their legal strategy, as they sought ways to go after its assets in various jurisdictions. Chevron pressed on, accusing Donziger of criminal contempt of court.<\/p>\n The lawyer\u2019s supporters agree there is plenty of evidence that a blatant miscarriage of justice is going on in the courthouse.The case is heard in the same federal district court in Lower Manhattan, but the prosecutor in the case is notably not working for the corresponding federal prosecutor\u2019s office, which refused to take the case. In an irregular move, Rita Glavin was appointed to take the role by Judge Kaplan. She is a private lawyer working for a firm that has a connection with the oil giant, which prompted Donziger\u2019s defense team to dub her a \u201cChevron prosecutor.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Donziger\u2019s accusers claim he was motivated by greed, hoping to get hundreds of millions of dollars in contingency fees for winning the compensation case against Chevron.\u201cBig world giants, huge multinational corporations like this have thought that they just had impunity to treat people and to treat the Earth however they want to,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Williamson said during the interview.\u00a0\u201cAnd how dare any human rights lawyer, any environmentalist, any activist movement for justice or environmental responsibility dare to question them?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Donziger dedicated almost three decades of his life to the case. In 2019, he was disbarred by the New York Bar Association. Judge Kaplan ruled that he must pay $3.4 million for contempt and to cover Chevron\u2019s legal fees \u2013 the largest sanction of this kind in the history of New York courts. For about two years he remained under house arrest, after the judge in his ongoing case, Loretta Preska, decided he was a flight risk.<\/p>\n If found guilty, he faces up to six months in a federal prison.<\/p>\n