Published at: Hot Air by Jazz Shaw
It’s been a while since we checked in on Steven Donziger, the New York City attorney who was the architect of the failed Chevron Shakedown. How are things going for him these days? Well, the first item to note is that I should issue a correction to that first sentence. Donziger has reportedly been disbarred from every place where he was previously allowed to practice law. He can now represent nobody but himself, so is he still technically an attorney?
Whether he is or not, he may want some outside representation in the near future. As it turns out, Donziger has raised the hackles of at least one judge he’s come before and is currently being held in contempt of court. (Forbes)
“I’ve detailed the civil contempt of court motion against Steven Donziger in prior columns. So it’s very pleasing to read United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s remarkable, 75-page, contempt of court ruling. It begins with these words: “Steven Donziger, formerly a lawyer, has led a corrupt effort to extort billions of dollars from Chevron Corporation.”
After that devastating introduction, things only got worse. Donziger, whose “corrupt effort” has been described in this column, is now in contempt of court for blatantly and willfully violating Judge Kaplan’s orders. Those orders enjoined Donziger from continuing to personally profit from what Judge Kaplan termed “the fraudulent procurement of a multibillion judgment from a provincial court in Ecuador (the “Ecuador Judgment”).”
As noted in the Forbes column, this isn’t the first time Donziger has been held in contempt. But the latest ruling (you can read the details of it here) really brings the judicial hammer down on him. He was previously ordered not to continue attempting to profit from his “fraudulent procurement of a multi-billion dollar judgment” regarding the Ecuador affair. (Those are the judge’s words, not mine.)
PICTURE CREDIT: Free Images
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