{"id":604199,"date":"2021-07-27T17:36:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T21:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=604199"},"modified":"2021-07-27T17:36:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T21:36:28","slug":"disbarred-environmental-lawyer-who-sued-chevron-found-guilty-of-criminal-contempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/disbarred-environmental-lawyer-who-sued-chevron-found-guilty-of-criminal-contempt\/","title":{"rendered":"Disbarred Environmental Lawyer Who Sued Chevron Found Guilty Of Criminal Contempt"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/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%2Fdisbarred-environmental-lawyer-who-sued-chevron-found-guilty-of-criminal-contempt%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=604199&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Steven-Donziger.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A so-called environmental lawyer found to have falsified scientific evidence and bribed a foreign judge to shake down an oil company faces up to six months in jail after a Manhattan federal judge on Monday ruled he committed criminal contempt.<\/p>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/chevron-foe-steven-donziger-found-guilty-of-contempt-in-ecuador-saga-11627311839\">reported<\/a>, \u201cDisbarred attorney Steven Donziger was found guilty of six counts of criminal contempt of court, the latest twist in a nearly three-decade crusade against Chevron Corp that began as an attempt to prove the oil company caused environmental harm in Ecuador.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the judgment, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska wrote that Donziger \u201crepeatedly and willfully\u201d defied court orders to hand over evidence, including his electronic devices and passport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time to pay the piper,\u201d Judge Preska added.<\/p>\n<p>Donziger, 59, has been under house arrest for nearly two years while awaiting trial. He is expected to be sentenced in the coming weeks. His attorney had claimed the court allowed Chevron to advance an intimidation campaign against Donziger.<\/p>\n<p>More details from the Wall Street Journal:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"23\">\n<p><em>The contempt case, the judge wrote, has nothing to do with any responsibility Chevron might bear for pollution in the rainforest in Ecuador, where Chevron\u2019s predecessors drilled for oil in the previously pristine jungle. The company has repeatedly denied any culpability.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Instead, \u201cat stake here is the fundamental principle that a party to a legal action must abide by court orders or risk criminal sanctions, no matter how fervently he believes in the righteousness of his cause or how much he detests his adversary.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mr. Donziger said Monday he plans to appeal the decision, which he said \u201cmarks a sad day for the rule of law, for our democracy and for our planet.\u201d His legal team recently asked Judge Preska to reconsider the terms of his home confinement, which hit its 700th day this month.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to the Wall Street Journal, \u201cMr. Donziger first went up against Chevron\u2019s predecessor Texaco Inc. in the early 1990s, when he represented native Ecuadoreans who claimed the company\u2019s operations in the Amazon were sickening them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As The Daily Wire <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/dems-help-lawyer-found-to-have-falsified-science-bribed-judge-to-shake-down-oil-company\">previously reported<\/a>, in 2003, Donziger filed a lawsuit in Ecuador against Chevron, which had since bought Texaco, asking for money for environmental cleanup.<\/p>\n<p>An Ecuadorian judge ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion in 2011. Chevron did not pay, contending that the judgment was the result of foreign judicial corruption.<\/p>\n<p>Three years later, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed, describing the situation as something \u201cout of Hollywood.\u201d Although Donziger and his team purportedly represented a class of 30,000 indigenous residents, they asked for any funds to go to a group that, as Kaplan described, \u201cDonziger and some of his Ecuadorian associates controlled.\u201d Donziger stood to gain more than $600 million in fees, plus \u201ccontrol of or influence over the billions\u201d that would go to the group that would oversee the cleanup fund. According to the WSJ, Kaplan\u2019s ruling \u201cconcluded Mr. Donziger and his colleagues corrupted the legal process in Ecuador by manufacturing evidence, pressuring judges and ultimately ghostwriting the final judgment in the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/dems-help-lawyer-found-to-have-falsified-science-bribed-judge-to-shake-down-oil-company\">Dems Ask DOJ To Help Lawyer Found To Have Falsified Science, Bribed Judge To Shake Down Oil Company<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously upheld the U.S. ruling.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, an international tribunal at The Hague held that the judgment \u201cwas procured through fraud, bribery and corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Judge Kaplan said that Donziger allegedly committed criminal contempt of court after his ruling by refusing to turn over evidence. The Southern District of New York federal prosecutor\u2019s office declined to bring charges, saying it did not have the resources. Instead, Kaplan appointed a private law firm to try Donziger.<\/p>\n<p>In Judge Preska\u2019s judgment issued Monday morning, she wrote, \u201cthe Special Prosecutors have proven each element of criminal contempt of court beyond a reasonable doubt\u201d and denied Donziger\u2019s two post-trial letter motions seeking dismissal of those charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cContrary to Mr. Donziger\u2019s assertion that his conviction was \u2018pre-ordained,\u2019 the Court finds him guilty on each count for one reason and one reason only: Mr. Donziger did that with which he is charged. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A so-called environmental lawyer found to have falsified scientific evidence and bribed a foreign judge to shake down an oil company faces up to six months in jail after a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604199","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\/604199","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604199\/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=604199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}