CHRIS HEDGES: The Anonymous Executioners of the Corporate State
October 7, 2021
Imprisoning the David to Chevrons Goliath is the latest outrage by a U.S. judiciary now engineered to favor the interests of capital.
Steven Donziger in a video message to supporters on Sept. 30. (Steve Donziger, Twitter)
By Chris Hedges
ScheerPost.com
Judge Loretta Preska, an adviser to the conservative Federalist Society, to which Chevron is a major donor, sentenced human rights attorney and Chevron nemesis Steven Donziger to six months in prison Friday for misdemeanor contempt of court after he had already spent 787 days under house arrest in New York.
Preskas caustic outbursts she said at the sentencing, It seems that only the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes will instill in him any respect for the law capped a judicial farce worthy of the antics of Vasiliy Vasilievich, the presiding judge at the major show trials of the Great Purges in the Soviet Union, and the Nazi judge Roland Freisler who once shouted at a defendant, You really are a lousy piece of trash!
Donziger, a graduate of Harvard Law School, has been fighting against polluting American oil companies for nearly three decades on behalf of indigenous communities and peasant farmers in Ecuador.
His only crime was winning a $9.5 billion judgment in 2011 against Chevron for thousands of plaintiffs. The oil giant had bought Texaco oil company holdings in Ecuador, inheriting a lawsuit alleging it deliberately discharged 16 billion gallons of toMoxic waste from its oil sites into rivers, groundwater, and farmland. Since the verdict, Chevron has come after him, weaponizing litigation to destroy him economically, professionally and personally.
More:
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/07/chris-hedges-the-anonymous-executioners-of-the-corporate-state/
yonder
(9,631 posts)rickyhall
(4,889 posts)alwaysinasnit
(5,037 posts)Doc Sportello
(7,454 posts)I'm sure we'll have someone say "but it's not illegal". From this to the Sacklers, no more proof is needed as to how multi-national corporations are treated in this country.
Kid Berwyn
(14,644 posts)For some reason, this wasnt on my tee vee.
Six-Month Sentence for Lawyer Who Took on Chevron Denounced as 'International Outrage'
Conviction of Steven Donziger, said one critic, "perfectly encapsulates how corporate power has twisted the U.S. justice system to protect corporate interests and punish their enemies."
JULIA CONLEY
Common Dreams, October 1, 2021
Environmental justice advocates and other progressives on Friday condemned a federal judge's decision Friday to sentence human rights lawyer Steven Donziger to six months in prisonfollowing more than two years of house arrest related to a lawsuit he filed decades ago against oil giant Chevron.
The sentence, delivered by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York City, represents "an international outrage," tweeted journalist Emma Vigeland following its announcement.
Snip
In 2019, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New Yorka former corporate lawyer with investments in Chevronheld Donziger in contempt of court after he refused to disclose privileged information about his clients to the fossil fuel industry. Kaplan placed Donziger under house arrest, where he has remained under strict court monitoring for 787 days.
In addition to Kaplan's own connections to Chevron, the judge appointed private attorneys to prosecute the case, including one who had worked for a firm that represented the oil giant.
Preska, who found Donziger guilty of the contempt charges in July, is a leader of the right-wing Federalist Society, which counts Chevron among its financial backers.
Continues
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/01/six-month-sentence-lawyer-who-took-chevron-denounced-international-outrage
The Feudalist Society, more like.
Thank you Judi Lynn! A GD OP:
Six-Month Sentence for Lawyer Who Took on Chevron: 'International Outrage'
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215919710
Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)
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Uncle Joe
(58,110 posts)Thanks for the thread Judi Lynn.