Dozens of Democrats Press Biden to Pardon Environmental Lawyer Targeted by Chevron
Steven Donziger won a $9.5 billion case against Chevron – the oil giant then embarked on a years-long effort to “demonize” him.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to pardon Steven Donziger, an environmental lawyer who led a $9.5 billion legal case against Chevron for its responsibility in the dumping of oil waste en masse in Ecuador, in what became known as the “Amazon Chernobyl.”
“President Biden, your administration has prioritized promoting the rule of law, standing up for those who are victims of injustice, and working to defend our democracy,” the 34 members of Congress wrote in a letter sent to Biden on Wednesday.
“In light of the highly suspect charges against Mr. Donziger and their alarming connection to his work as an environmental lawyer, we ask that you exercise your power of executive clemency to issue a full and unconditional pardon for Mr. Donziger,” the lawmakers added, referring to contempt of court charges the environmental lawyer was convicted of in 2021.
The appeal to Biden comes on the heels of the outgoing president’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, reneging on his previous pledge not to do so.
An array of high-ranking and ideologically diverse Democrats signed onto Wednesday’s letter. It’s led by Rep. James McGovern (Mass.), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, and supported by Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, as well as Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ted Lieu (Calif.), and the outgoing and incoming chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Greg Casar (Texas), among others.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined the effort from the Senate side.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
A Strategy to Demonize
Supporters of Donzinger often point to internal company memos that show Chevron sought to “demonize” the lawyer for more than a decade. The case stems back to 1964, when oil brand Texaco – which Chevron purchased in 2000 – began exploring and extracting in Ecuador. Over the decades to come, Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon Rainforest, polluting acres of earth and Indigenous ancestral lands, directly contaminating 30,000 people, bringing diseases and birth defects to the population.
Donziger, who represented those affected in a class action lawsuit against Chevron, called what he saw in Ecuador "an apocalyptic disaster, almost like the end of the world."
His years-long effort netted a historic $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in 2011 – a judgment the oil giant did not pay, and instead filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) suit against Donziger, claiming the entire case against it was built off fraud and extortion. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in favor of Chevron in 2014. The company’s star witness later admitted he lied, but an appeals court declined to consider the revelation.
As the legal saga drew on, Kaplan, in 2019, charged Donziger with contempt of court after the environmental lawyer defied a court order and refused to turn over case files, arguing it would violate attorney-client privilege. While federal prosecutors declined to take up the case against Donziger, Kaplan made the unprecedented move to appoint a private firm – one with alleged ties to Chevron itself – to prosecute Donziger on the charges.
Donziger was then denied a jury trial and convicted in 2021. He was ultimately disbarred and spent 45 days in prison and 993 more under house arrest.
Attorney General Merrick Garland ignored appeals, including from members of Congress, to review Donziger’s case, and in 2022, his Justice Department filed a brief in opposition to Donziger’s appeal to the Supreme Court. Donziger exhausted all legal avenues to overturn his conviction last year after the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
‘Chilling Effect’
Wednesday’s letter adds to the growing calls for a pardon. Earlier this year, 50 environmental and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and Amazon Watch, urged Biden to pardon Donziger.
In Wednesday’s letter, the Democratic lawmakers wrote that they are concerned “about the chilling effect this case will have on all advocates working on behalf of other frontline communities, victims of human rights violations, and those seeking environmental justice.”
Pardoning Donziger, they added, would “send a powerful message to the world that billion-dollar corporations cannot act with impunity against lawyers and their clients who defend the public interest.”
Read the full letter below:
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I don't see my congressional representatives in the list of names so I guess it's time to write and call them again. Watched and read a few more things about Steven Donziger's case and what happened down in Ecuador. The whole thing stinks to high heaven with evil corp. BS.
Except the folks in Ecuador never got their justice. Oh my god, profit leads everything … justice trails so far behind