68 Nobel Laureates Demand Biden Administration Review Chevron-Tainted Prosecution of U.S. Human Rights Lawyer Steven Donziger

Famed Environmental Attorney Passes A Shocking 635 Days of House Arrest Without Trial On Misdemeanor Contempt Charge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Shannon Powell at +1 (202) 744-1624 or press@donzigerdefense.com

New York, NY — Dozens of Nobel Laureates are demanding the U.S. Department of Justice immediately intervene and block the controversial misdemeanor contempt prosecution of U.S. human rights attorney Steven Donziger by a private Chevron law firm appointed by a judge with investments in Chevron. Donziger was the lead lawyer on a pollution case that resulted in a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in Ecuador, prompting the company to launch a “demonize Donziger” campaign.

“We believe a high-level review will reveal that the contempt case against Mr. Donziger clearly is a violation of Mr. Donziger’s rights and the rights of the affected communities in Ecuador,” said the Nobel Laureates in the letter that was addressed to Merrick Garland, President’s Biden’s appointee as Attorney General.

The 68 Nobel Laureates represent winners from different disciplines, among them Jody Willams (Peace, 1997), Joseph Stieglitz (Economics, 2001), Alice Munro (Literature, 1993), Wole Soyinka (Literature, 1986), and Sir Richard Roberts (Medicine, 1993). In the letter to Garland, they wrote that “when a U.S. corporation has been able to wrest power from the government to prosecute the lawyer who helped to hold it accountable for human rights abuses, in a process that appears to be abetted by judges with their own conflicts of interest.” 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams says, "A nation that wants to lead on climate issues can't let multinational oil corporations pervert the democratic process and silence its critics. If the Department of Justice refuses to intervene in the prosecution of Steven Donziger, it would not only be a gross miscarriage of justice, it would also be an abandonment of their commitment to climate action.”

The letter follows one sent last week by six prominent U.S. elected leaders from the House of Representatives, including Rep. Jim McGovern, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlalib, Jamaal Bowman, and Jamie Raskin (click here for the letter and here for the press release.)

Donziger faces a federal trial without a jury on May 10th on a misdemeanor contempt charge after he refused to disclose privileged client information to Chevron. He has now been under house arrest without trial for more than 600 days on a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 90 days at home if convicted.

The Laureates pointed out in their letter that the charges against Donziger were rejected by the regular federal prosecutor, prompting Judge Lewis Kaplan to appoint a private law firm (Seward & Kissel) to prosecute Donziger while billing taxpayers more than $500,000. Seven months after the Seward partner insisted that Donziger be imprisoned in his home, she disclosed that Chevron was actually a client of her law firm.

Kaplan also violated a local requiring random case assignment and named Loretta Preska to preside. Preska is a leader of the Chevron-funded Federalist Society and has taken extreme right-wing positions as a judge, including ruling that evangelical schools can use parts of public school buildings in New York City. 

Donziger led a team of international lawyers that won a landmark $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in 2013 after it was found by courts to have deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic oil waste onto Indigenous ancestral lands in Ecuador’s Amazon, causing an outbreak of cancer that has killed thousands of people, according to independent health evaluations.

In November of 2020, 55 Laureates released a public statement calling for Donziger’s release from house arrest, dismissal of the charges against him, the cessation of judicial harassment, and assurances that legal actions be assigned to a neutral and unbiased judge. 

The Nobel Laureates and Members of Congress join a growing list of those denouncing the unprecedented legal attacks on Donziger and calling for the Department of Justice to intervene, including Amnesty International USA, Amazon Watch and 11 other human rights and environmental groups (click here to read the letter from international organizations).

###

One-pager about the case - A concise, one-page summary of Donziger’s case and situation.

Timeline of the Case - Learn more about the full scope of this extraordinary and disturbing story.

Articles on the Case - From law student boycotts of firms defending Chevron to detailed breakdowns of the implications of this case, a selection of articles with important history.