Welcome back to Drilled. I'm Amy Westervelt, and it has been quite a month for climate nudes. A week ago, the International Energy Agency issued a shocking report for them, saying that we need to end new fossil fuel developments now, not twenty years from now, not ten years from now. Today. This is Henry Kissinger's International Energy Agency, folks, not a bunch of tree hugging hippies, and they're saying something that even progressive politicians who think we should act on climate
have been kind of afraid to say. That was a huge deal. Then this week, a Dutch court ordered Shell to cut emissions from both its operations and its products forty twenty thirty. That ruling sets a huge precedent for climate cases around the globe, and shareholder meetings in the
US this week didn't go the industry's way either. Exonmobile had to give up two board seats to climate activist shareholders who have vowed to push the company away from oil and gas and toward climate action, and Chevron shareholders voted in favor of a proposal to cut emissions generated
by the company's products. Chevron shareholders also voiced concern over the company's continued pursuit of human rights activist Stephen Donziger, who was in court in New York earlier this month facing criminal contempt charges related to his work on the case against Chevron in Ecuador. I didn't say Attorney Stephen Donziger. They because Chevron successfully got Donziger disbarred last year. If you haven't listened to our season on that case, it's
a quick way to get caught up. It's litigation that's been going on for thirty years. Today, I've got Paul Buzzyminho from Amazon Watch here with an update. He was in the courtroom last week and says the judge in that case against Donziger seems intent on sending him to jail. That update coming up after this quick break.
Let's maybe start with just like day one showing up, what was the kind of the vibe in the courtroom?
It it was, you know, I've been working in some way on this case for fourteen years. Right that rally the opening day of Donzier's trial was one of the highest energy, most engaged groups that I've seen in a decade in the US, especially involved in this case. Like we've had many protests that shareholder meetings. There are obviously there's more issues with Chevron than just this case, but
this case is such an important one. But I was so amazed at the level and the amount of support and interest behind Donzinger, and I see that as the failure of Chevron and give some done strategy. I mean, this is the last thing that they wanted to make Donzinger into a hero. But by going after him to the level that they have, they've done that. They've turned the narrative around to why would any judge do this?
Why would the US judicial system allow this? Oh, hustle fuel industry is behind this, And then you realize this is one guy going up against an unbelievably powerful force that is seeking to destroy him, just like he's been saying for years. But now people can visualize what that.
Looks like the private secutor in the fact that the private prosecutor has links to Chevron, And then you know, I just saw a few days ago when Stephen posted the log where they had met with Chevron's lawyer several times, and that means time to where I'm just like, this just doesn't look good. No matter what you think of Stephen, even if you think this Stephen Donziger. Guy is skeeduy, this is unheard of. And the fact that he has already been on house arrest for what more than six
hundred days? Now, yeah, let's call it almost two years for a crime in air quotes that comes with a six month sentence and the crime.
That's really what the point is about, right. They wanted to be officially a crime because all he did was resist a judge's order in a civil case. Okay, it's a federal judge, and okay, you're supposed to do certain things, but that's not a crime. They need criminalize him so that when he picks up the one who tries to talk to you know, the press or members of Congress or other judges outside of the United States want to be able to say, you're honor this man has been
convicted in the United States. Why are you listening to him or don't feature him? He's been He's a convicted criminal.
Okay.
So what was Judge Presca like in the courtroom?
So I was I've been thinking about how to how I would raise this. I'm not I was not at all surprised, but I was continually shocked by her level of disdain and dismissal for Donziger and the defense team. She didn't even pretend to hide the fact that she was going to keep arguing with the defense and that she was so happy to be listening to the prosecution, except for when she felt like reading the paper, which she did several times and.
What like during the defense.
During the trial, Yeah, during all parts, almost every day, I saw a newspaper on her desk, and occasionally she would flip the page. And you know, this is a criminal trial, like someone's fate of going to jail hangs in the balance. You shouldn't be reading a newspaper. And apparently, you know, they're allowed to have that on the desk.
It's not like you can't file a judicial miscondent complaint for that, but you should be able to, especially when her demeanor towards like Marti Garbus, who's you know, a renowned that claims lawyers work you know with with Nelson, Mandela and so many other leadership, says our Chavez, and here's this iconic defender of the rights of people who've been attacked by governments and others, and she argued with him,
she raided him. She continually stopped him in mid sentence whenever he was trying to speak, and he was bringing some really important constitutional challenges now with the caveat right, I'm not a lawyer. I've just spent so many times in court listening to all this stuff. His argument was that Rita Glevin and Sorting Kissel had said on the record in court that they were not being supervised in
any way by the Department of Justice. Now, this Rule forty two thing, which is really bizarre, allowing a federal judge to appoint a private prosecutor. It doesn't mean that once they do that, they can therefore act however they so choose. Right, they build over a million dollars already, Right, a federal prosecutor would not do that. They can't do that. They shouldn't never charge by the hour, because it's not in their interest to enrich themselves to prosecute a crime.
But they should have some oversight by a government institution. So Garbus was trying to argue that we need to know, the defense needs to know what the DOJ was or wasn't doing, and Prescot would not allow him to seek that kind of discovery, saying that it didn't pertain strictly to these contempt charges, and she said on day one that it wouldn't matter whether or not Captain's orders were
overturned on appeal by the Second Circuit. He received an order from a federal judge, didn't comply with that order. He was held in contempt. So she said pretty much right at the outset, like I'm convicting you. I see that you have committed contempt of court. And that's what these charges are. And that's why Donzeinger realized, Okay, there's no point in testifying. This isn't about us mounting a defense.
This is about getting things on the record so that when we appeal, a fair minded judge will actually look at what's the orchestration of this entire effort to lock him up. And that's how the questions on cross examination were phrased to show how many hours did Getson done volunteer to work with the prosecutor. How did you expect that Stephen Donzinger was going to pay back the eight hundred thousand dollars that Gibson done, said it owes in legal fees. Gibson done was trying to get his law
license taken away. Makes it kind of hard to make a living as a lawyer if you can't to pay the money back if you have no profession. There were arguments that they spent way more money going after him than they ever expected to collect, because of course the objective was not about the money.
Did this stuff about, you know, Chevron's attorneys meeting with the private prosecutors come out in the in the trial. Could you talk a little bit about that?
It was quite interesting because to the two principal witnesses were Anne Champion and William Thompson from Gibson Done. And Champion started as an associate before the Rico charges were filed. She was involved in the seventeen eighty two filings, so prior to twenty ten, I think, and then she was involved all the way through the reco case. And so she has kind of when the prosecution asked her, she had kind of an encyclic takes knowledge of the case.
When the defense asked her questions, all of a sudden, she kind of had a hard time remembering things. But as they were going through questioning her, you know, Ron Koby for the defense would ask how many meetings did you have with it with the rita Glevin and Sorting Kissel, calling them the private prosecutor, not giving them the not really respecting the idea that they're supposed to be acting
as federal prosecutors. They were called the private prosecutor. And she talked about meetings that went on for several hours, like seven hours long zoom call with her and other partners that gets and done, all preparing for this testimony. Now that you know they have it received subpoenas to testify, but they haven't received subpoenas to meet with the prosecutor. That's something that they did of their own free will. And as Ron Kobe would ask, he would say, so,
how many hours did you volunteer? And both lawyers would say, well, I wouldn't. I wouldn't put it that way. I wasn't volunteering. Okay, Well, then were you compelled to do so by law?
No?
I wasn't. Well were you billing Chevron for the time that you spent? Well, no, because this doesn't pertain to Chefron's litigation, So that means you volunteered, Like that's the definition of volunteering your time. But they were so belligerent that they refused to even respond with a yes or
no when asked yes or no questions. A great example was a one point ron Kuby said, so did Caplin, So Kaplyn rejected that order a request of Gibson done and one of the back and forth right, and the response was, well, I wouldn't say that he declined to accept it. Fobes like your honor, can you please just direct the witness to answer the question yes or no?
And it got to the level of the absurd when they Ron put up an exhibit which was the filing of the reco charges, the first document filing the reco charges and Randy Master's signature is at the bottom of the page and a line checking a box that says damages to be assessed to be determined at the trial, because originally they were seeking money damages, and then the box was checked for a jury. Right of course, we know famously they dropped the money damages. They didn't want
a jury and they never got it. And you know Kaplin refused to give Steven donzing Our a jury. But it was Randy's signature at the bottom. Everybody could read that. It was up on the screen, William Thompson's like I can't quite tell what that is. So ron Koby's like, okay, do we need to go through this That first letter, would you say that that looks like an R? And William Thompson's like, yeah, I could say that that could be an odor. The next letter, does it look like that could be an A?
Yeah, that might be an A.
And they went through every letter of Randy Master's name before he would admit, Okay, yes it looks like Randy Master for what purpose? Like there, it's not a crime. There's nothing nefarious about Randy mastero being the one who signs it. It's just a thing you want to give the defense. Even that she overturned every single objection of the defense but one, and she sustained every objection to
the prosecution butt one. So it was so clear from the beginning that this was Presca, you know, going through the motions, getting in on the record so that she can get to a conviction. And that's why I really think Steven Donzrier made the right move and not testifying because it wouldn't have helped him in any way.
So what happens next now the you know, everything has rested right, So I imagine Presca will have a decision soon, so.
She gave two weeks. They have two weeks to file their final papers, so there's no like closing arguments, but each side files last documents after that, so two weeks from yesterday and then she said she would rule very quickly, but that doesn't mean Sole sentenced very quickly. So we don't know how long it's going to take before she decides, if there's any jail time, if it's partial, if it's six months the maximum. We'll find out at some point, probably in June, maybe the end of June, but it's
really hard to say. And you know, Stephen Downzier is just wondering every day if and when he's going to jail. Meanwhile, he's still stuck on home detention. He's still wearing an ankle bracelet and still fighting these orders from Kaplan.
Okay, well, two things. One would any part of the.
Judgment like force him to comply with Kaplan's order? And Two, what's happening with the civil contempt charge? Because I know, like the judgment and that was expected, and you know, if that were to go, if that were to be dismissed, it would sort of eliminate the whole basis of this charge, right, So what's happening with that.
Well, as far as what this does, I don't think actually it does. He's already surrendered his passport. I think this would just be jail time. I believe it's the other orders, because this is just about the contempt. It's not about the orders. Did he or didn't he go into contempt and he volunteered that he was willingly going to civil content, not criminal.
Contempt right the other you know, it's been all.
That Donzinger could do to defend himself against this. Meanwhile, mounting an appeal of all these other things with the second Circuit takes a lot of time and energy and legal muscle, and most of this has done pro bono, you know. So I'm not sure where all of those
appeals stand. But what's really significant to this case was that the recent decision in Donzinger's favor was about clarifying Caplin's order about what he could or couldn't do with the judgment and selling basically shares of the judgment in
order to finance enforcement efforts. So he was continuing to work with people to do that, which is how Canada happened, and presumably more enforcement actually would happen, and Caplan's order was too vague because Kaplin's order basically says, as you know, Steven can't monetize the Equatorian judgment in the United States, he can't find it from it, But it doesn't say that he can't take portions of other people's portion of it and then bring it to investors and others to
support the case. And Chevron said, no, he can't do that. Stephen said, yeah, the way I read it, we can't do that. Caplain, can you please clarify this, which he refused to do for a year, and then the Second Circuit came down, and trust me, there's nothing that they hate more than overruling Caplin. They wanted to. If they could have figured out how to dismiss all of his appeals, they would have, but they couldn't because it was so poorly written.
They agreed this was not clear. So that's the underlying basis for all the subsequent stuff that Chevron was throwing it. But PRESCA wouldn't allow that to be brought up in any way as part of the defense. And that's the real crux of why this wasn't a case about justice, because if you don't get to explain what's happening and why. If it's just a matter of you were told to do X, you did, why therefore, Z you.
Could have a computer issue a burden. You don't need a human being to make a decision. So in what goes forward now, he still has to continue appealing some of Kaplan's orders, and I don't honestly, I don't know when or if they will come down and say, yeah, we're rejecting everything and now you need to turn over your computer and cell phone. That could still happen, and you know, as he has said, if that happens, he'll do what he's supposed to do. He never said he
was going to defy every court. He was going to appeal and then act on that decision. So I don't know when that's going to come. But honestly, right now he has to appeal the criminal contempt charges, so everything gets pushed even further and this could be another year before the decision is even made on those things. And while you know, everybody loses sight of the fact that every single day this contamination is still affecting people, and
that's every day that judge says come back tomorrow. We're a journey like you can adjourn for lunch in New York and have a nice little lunch in the cafeteria. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people are still affected by the water and equidard that knows the FEEDA.
That's it for this time. Thanks for listening. If you would like to support our work, you can join us at Patreon. That is patreon dot com slash drilled. We are bringing you several stories on the natural gas industry, it's history, its impacts, and some of its crazy tactics coming up starting in June and running through the end.
Of the year.
We've also got some more projects coming up on disinformation across industries and several international climate cases, So stay tuned for all of that and we'll see you soon.