Chevron bought the US justice system

[soothsayer]

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Chevron bought the US justice system

You know that free-floating sense that multinational corporations are above the law, able to buy their way out of consequences for even the most blatant, heinous crimes?

There's a (nearly) unbelievable, highly concrete example of it underway right at this moment.

It's the story of Steven Donziger, a campaigning lawyer who sued Chevron for its ecocide in Ecuador, a genocide against indigenous people, committed with cooperation from a brutal military dictatorship.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/02/free-steven-donziger/#free-donziger

Donziger managed the impossible. He secured a conviction against Chevron, and a $9.8 billion judgment against the company, owed to the indigenous people they poisoned, whose lands and bodies remain poisoned and sick to this day.

Now, if you're an exec at Chevron and you value money more than life, the rational move that proceeds from this judgment is straightforward: any legal maneuver that costs less than $9.8b is your fiduciary duty to your shareholders.

Give it to Chevron: buying your way out of red-handed genocidal environmental racism is an art form, and they are masters.

First, Chevron paid $2m relocating Ecuadoran judge Albert Guerra to the US, where he testified that the the Ecuadoran fine was the result of a bribe.

Chevron paid for Guerra and his family to move to the USA, paid for his immigration process, paid his income tax, and coached him for 53 days before he appeared in the Southern District of New York Court of Judge Lewis A Kaplan.

Kaplan believed Guerra, and continued to believe him even after Guerra recanted his testimony and admitted that he'd lied at Chevron's behest.

Six other courts, including the Supreme Courts of Ecuadoran and Canada, have upheld the fine against Chevron.

Why would Kaplan believe Guerra after Guerra said he was lying? Maybe it has something to do with Kaplan's own legal background: before he was a judge, he was a corporate lawyer working for a firm that represented tobacco companies in cancer liability lawsuits.

Kaplan used Guerra's testimony to convict Donziger on civil racketeering charges. Chevron brought the charges, and cannily, they dropped their demand for monetary compensation, which meant Donziger couldn't get a jury trial.

But the fact that Chevron didn't seek monetary damages doesn't mean what you'd expect: after Kaplan ruled against Donziger, the judge hit him with an order to pay Chevron millions in court fees.

Worse still, he ordered Donziger to turn over his laptop and phone – not to the court, but to Chevron, who would then get access to his privileged attorney-client communications with the victims of Chevron's ecocide, opening those people to violent retaliation.

Donziger appealed the order. Kaplan then charged him with a misdemeanor for having the temerity to appeal. This was so chickenshit that the District Attorney refused to take up the case, so Kaplan appointed a corporate lawfirm that fronts for Big Oil to prosecute Donziger.

This firm, Seward & Kissel, has a blue-chip roster of climate criminals for clients, including Chevron itself. They are prosecuting Donziger in front of Judge Loretta Preska, whom Kaplan hand-picked to hear the case (he had to violate SDNY procedures to make this happen).

Preska is a member of the Federalist Society, a corporate-backed law organization whose major donors include Chevron.

Donziger is fighting this with his hands tied behind his back. Not only did Kaplan get him disbarred (there's a pending appeal), but he had him arrested.

Donziger is the only person in the entire USA who is in pre-trial detention for a misdemeanor. The only one. He's been under house arrest for more than 580 days. The maximum sentence for the misdemeanor is 180 days. He still hasn't had a trial.

Donziger spoke to Esquire's Jack Holmes about his case, describing how Kaplan has barred him and his Ecuadoran clients from seeking enforcement of the judgement anywhere in the USA.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a35812573/steven-donziger-chevron-house-arrest/

Preska, the Federalist Society judge whom Kaplan picked to hear the contempt charge, has denied his request for a jury trial.

Donziger calls it "corporate political prosecution" and calls himself "a corporate political prisoner."

This is bigger than the judgment against Chevron. As Donziger says, "if you can't do this kind of legal work to hold these polluters accountable, the destruction of the earth will happen at a faster pace."

The corporate takeover of the justice system isn't an abstract conspiracy theory. It is very specific, and it is playing out before our eyes, in a courtroom in New York City.

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/19/the-shakedown/

[TigressDem]

1. OMG - Evil. nt

[soothsayer]

3. I know, this story drives me nuts every time

That and Reality Winner

[TigressDem]

2. K&R K& R K&R K&R K& R K&R K&R K& R K&R

[uponit7771]

4. Jus damn, its by the grace of God that this country hasn't been creating more animosity than we have

[50 Shades Of Blue]

5. K & R

[UpInArms]

6. John Perkins ...

From the author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, comes an exposé of international corruption, and an inspired plan to turn the tide for future generations

With a presidential election around the corner, questions of America's military buildup, environmental impact, and foreign policy are on everyone's mind. Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins goes behind the scenes of the current geopolitical crisis and offers bold solutions to our most pressing problems. Drawing on interviews with other EHMs, jackals, CIA operatives, reporters, businessmen, and activists, Perkins reveals the secret history of events that have created the current American Empire, including:

How the defeats in Vietnam and Iraq have benefited big business
The role of Israel as Fortress America in the Middle East
Tragic repercussions of the IMF's Asian Economic Collapse
The current Latin American revolution and its lessons for democracy
U.S. blunders in Tibet, Congo, Lebanon, and Venezuela

From the U.S. military in Iraq to infrastructure development in Indonesia, from Peace Corps volunteers in Africa to jackals in Venezuela, Perkins exposes a conspiracy of corruption that has fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe, with consequences reflected in our daily headlines. Having raised the alarm, Perkins passionately addresses how Americans can work to create a more peaceful and stable world for future generations.

[CrispyQ]

11. Someone needs to update Wm. Blum's paper, A Brief History of U.S. Interventions.

Perkins might be the one.

A Brief History of U.S. Interventions:
1945 to the Present
by William Blum
Z magazine , June 1999

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

The engine of American foreign policy has been fueled not by a devotion to any kind of morality, but rather by the necessity to serve other imperatives, which can be summarized as follows:

* making the world safe for American corporations;
* enhancing the financial statements of defense contractors at home who have contributed generously to members of congress;
* preventing the rise of any society that might serve as a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model;
* extending political and economic hegemony over as wide an area as possible, as befits a "great power."

This in the name of fighting a supposed moral crusade against what cold warriors convinced themselves, and the American people, was the existence of an evil International Communist Conspiracy, which in fact never existed, evil or not.

The United States carried out extremely serious interventions into more than 70 nations in this period.

(a detailed list follows)

[malaise]

7. Not just a cruel military dictatorship

A US backed one

[arthritisR_US]

8. This is the kind of corruption Racheal wrote about

in her latest book ... so fecking insane.

[Stuart G]

9. K & R

[Karadeniz]

10. If this is at the federal level, can't Biden intervene????