{"id":1068460,"date":"2021-11-30T12:29:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T17:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1068460"},"modified":"2021-11-30T12:29:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T17:29:27","slug":"the-squad-urges-doj-to-free-criminal-lawyer-who-fought-big-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-squad-urges-doj-to-free-criminal-lawyer-who-fought-big-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Squad Urges DOJ To Free Criminal Lawyer Who Fought Big Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-squad-urges-doj-to-free-criminal-lawyer-who-fought-big-oil%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1068460&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A group of left-wing House Democrats asked the Justice Department (DOJ) to free a lawyer serving a six-month sentence who fought the fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrats, led by Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Democratic Illinois Rep. Jes\u00fas Garc\u00eda, urged the DOJ to immediately \u201crectify the unprecedented and unjust imprisonment\u201d of environmental lawyer <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2015\/03\/05\/the-great-chevron-shakedown-case\/\">Steven Donziger<\/a> in a <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5ac2615b8f5130fda4340fcb\/t\/61a5721683929d5bc51012b6\/1638232599151\/2021-tlaib-garcia-letter-to-doj.pdf\">letter<\/a> sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday. Donziger previously sued the massive U.S. oil corporation Chevron on behalf of indigenous groups in South America.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Donziger, who has no prior criminal record, has been a beloved and vaunted member of the environmental and human rights communities for decades,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cMr. Donziger has done nothing but uphold the highest professional ethics in representing and protecting his clients but has since been thrown in federal prison for petty contempt charges,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Biden administration must send a clear signal that it stands with communities harmed by pollution and environmental destruction and the lawyers courageous enough to represent them and not the corporations that benefit from polluting the water, air, and land of local people,\u201d the letter continued. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/11\/29\/federal-reserve-climate-change-joe-biden-treasury-department-banks\/\">(RELATED: Federal Reserve Study Contradicts Biden On Climate Risks To Banks)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Barbara Lee of California and Ra\u00fal Grijalva of Arizona also signed the letter Monday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7328905\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"33\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7328905\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attorney Steven Donziger arrives for a court appearance at federal court on May 10 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2018\/04\/30\/phelim-mcaleer-ann-mcelhinney-dark-side-ecuador-lawsuit-chevron-play\/\">Donziger<\/a> was sentenced to six months in federal prison on Oct. 1 after U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska found him guilty of criminal contempt of court in July, The Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/chevron-foe-steven-donziger-faces-sentencing-in-contempt-case-11633096613\">reported<\/a>. The lawyer and green activist disobeyed court orders multiple times during his quest to hold Chevron accountable for alleged pollution of an Ecuadorean rainforest.<\/p>\n<p>In August 2020, Donziger was disbarred over his conduct pursuing Chevron, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/steven-donziger-who-battled-chevron-in-ecuador-has-been-disbarred\/\">according<\/a> to the Courthouse News Service. He spent more than a year under house arrest awaiting Preska\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n<p>Donziger ultimately won a $9.5 billion judgment in his case against Chevron which was tried in Ecuador court 10 years ago, the WSJ reported. But a U.S. court prohibited him from profiting from the settlement and Chevron has refused to pay him.<\/p>\n<p>He repeatedly ignored court orders and tried anyway to force Chevron to pay the judgment, according to the WSJ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Donziger spent the last seven plus years thumbing his nose at the U.S. judicial system,\u201d Preska said in court before handing down the sentence in October, the WSJ reported. \u201cIt\u2019s now time to pay the piper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Democrats who penned the letter to Garland said the district court failed to abide by \u201cinternational fair trial standards\u201d in the case against Donziger. They accused the judges who presided over the case of retaliating against Donziger because of his activism on behalf of indigenous communities.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of left-wing House Democrats asked the Justice Department (DOJ) to free a lawyer serving a six-month sentence who fought the fossil fuel industry.The Democrats, led by Democratic Michigan &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1068460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}