Rolling Stone reports:

In the last few days of Joe Biden’s presidency, Steven Donziger hopes Biden will pardon him — as do dozens of progressive lawmakers in Congress, as well as human rights and environmental activists across the world.

Donziger’s story is unique. “I’m the only person in the country to be criminally prosecuted by a private corporation,” Donziger tells Rolling Stone.

As a lawyer, he helped secure a historic judgment against the oil giant Chevron on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorians, after Texaco (bought by Chevron) heavily polluted the Amazon rainforest. The judgment was upheld by Ecuador’s top court, which ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion. Chevron never paid a dime, and instead filed a racketeering suit against Donziger in the United States, claiming the case in Ecuador was fraudulent.

“Chevron’s attempt to silence me is really an attack on these communities,” Donziger says, adding that the communities he represented in Ecuador have been “decimated” by “probably the world’s worst oil disaster.”

After a judge ruled against him, Chevron demanded possession of Donziger’s electronic devices — which he refused, citing attorney-client privilege. The judge moved to hold Donziger in contempt, then criminal contempt. When Donald Trump’s Justice Department declined to prosecute the case, the judge appointed a corporate law firm — a firm that had recently represented Chevron — to prosecute Donziger, and picked a judge to hear the case.

Donziger ultimately spent 993 days under house arrest and 45 days in prison. He lost his law license. Now, he’s broke, he says, because the first judge ordered him to pay Chevron’s massive legal fees.

The human rights lawyer previously urged the Supreme Court to review his prosecution. While the high court declined to hear his case, Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a blistering dissent — joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh — declaring that “the prosecution in this case broke a basic constitutional promise essential to our liberty,” because judges have no power “to initiate a prosecution of those who come before them.”

“Our Constitution does not tolerate what happened here,” Gorsuch added.

Now, Donziger is petitioning Biden for a pardon. “I want to get out from under the burden of this conviction so I can practice my profession again and do my human rights advocacy all over the world,” he says, “including on behalf of the Amazon communities in Ecuador.”

Currently, Donziger can’t leave the country. “That means I cannot meet my clients,” he says. “I need my law license back.” He adds that Chevron has “taken all my money. I literally have no money. I live off of a defense fund. Getting a pardon would make it much easier to get all of that stuff fixed.”

Moreover, he’s hoping Biden will see his case “as an opportunity to send a clear message to our society that private corporate prosecutions will never again happen in this country.” [Continue reading…]