Thank you for your support.

 

This email was sent from Free Donziger, a legal defense fund in support of U.S. human rights lawyer Steven Donziger. Steven helped Indigenous groups in Ecuador’s Amazon win a $9.5 billion judgment in 2013 over massive oil pollution. He has now spent almost 1,000 days in house arrest and prison after being targeted by a Chevron law firm in the nation’s first private corporate prosecution. You are receiving this email because you signed our petition demanding that President Biden pardon Steven. We need as many people as possible to stand with Steven against Chevron and the fossil fuel industry, but we need your help.  You are joining us at a dangerously critical time for the survival of the Amazon, for human rights lawyering generally, and for me and my family personally as we continue to help Indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s rainforest hold Chevron accountable for the deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing toxic oil waste. Thousands have died from Chevron’s acts of greed — and many more will perish unless Chevron stops targeting our team and instead complies with court orders to clean up what has become known as the “Chernobyl” of the Amazon.   We are reaching out to you because you signed on to the letter from my attorneys demanding that President Biden pardon me. I am incredibly grateful to have you join our campaign in this way. Our goal is to END Chevron’s deliberate manipulation of our legal system to attack me and other Earth Defenders. And since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been silent in the face of our demands for justice – specifically, our demand that the Department of Justice takes back the private prosecution of me from Chevron – we are now appealing directly to President Biden. Ten lawyers – who include Martin Garbus, who represented Nelson Mandela, and Nadine Strossen, the former President of the American Civil Liberties Union – sent the pardon letter to President Biden which dozens of environmental and legal groups are supporting (You can read the letter here). Among the signatories are some of the most respected lawyers in the country: Ron Kuby, who represented Steven at trial; Natali Segovia, one of the leading Indigenous rights lawyers in the world; Michael Tigar, a law professor at Duke; Jeanne Mirer, who leads the largest U.N. affiliated lawyer organization in the world; and of course, Mr. Garbus and Ms. Strossen. But it will take a major grassroots effort to ensure that this letter not only lands on President Biden’s desk but that Biden actually grants the pardon.  By the end of my 6-month sentence in late April, I will have spent almost 1,000 days locked up for a petty misdemeanor crime that has never resulted in a single day of prison for any other attorney in U.S. history. It is clear that Chevron’s abuse of the law has severely weakened the reputation of the U.S. in the areas of international human rights and environmental law, in addition to creating a major ordeal for me and my family. It is time for President Biden to step up immediately and correct this injustice once and for all. My detention is a miscarriage of justice that violates the Constitution and severely undermines the moral standing of the U.S. worldwide. It is time to fight back so that no other human rights lawyer or Earth Defender is subjected to the same inhumane treatment. If you are able, please help us fully activate our grassroots network of supporters by contributing $25 or whatever you can afford today.   For decades, my clients — who have watched as their ecosystem has been slowly destroyed by Chevron — have been forced to deal with the company’s mass industrial poisoning of one of the most pristine areas of the earth. They struggle daily to find safe drinking water, clean food, and medical attention. We cannot let that continue either in Ecuador or anywhere else. And we cannot allow private companies to directly prosecute and lock up the lawyers who hold them accountable. We MUST fight back to protect our democracy and to save the planet. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining our campaign. We are deeply grateful. Hugs, Steven Donziger Steven Donziger is a U.S. human rights attorney who helped communities in Ecuador’s Amazon win a historic multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against Chevron for the dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste onto Indigenous ancestral lands. Since the judgment issued in 2013, Chevron has used dozens of law firms and 2000 lawyers to carry out a demonization campaign targeting Steven to send a message of intimidation to all environmental advocates. Donate NOW to help support Steven as he and the Ecuadorian communities continue their fight for corporate accountability, environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and Free Speech.

Paid for by Donziger Defense Fund Our mailing address is: Frente de la Defensa de la Amazonía 245 W 104th St Apt 7D New York, NY 10025-4280

PLEASE READ THE LETTER:

EXCERPT FROM THE LETTER:

Chevron then steered the case to a particular judge (Lewis A. Kaplan) who had direct financial ties to Chevron and a long history of pro-corporate bias, including a years-long representation of the tobacco industry.