Dear Friends,

For the last decade, Chevron and dozens of its law firms have been trying to undermine my work as an environmental justice lawyer and jail me for helping Amazon communities in Ecuador win a historic $9.5 billion pollution judgment against the company. These scorched-earth attacks threaten to destroy my professional career, undermine democratic freedoms, and accelerate the destruction of the planet. I need your help urgently to fight back.

As background, I have spent much of my professional life helping Indigenous peoples and rural communities in Ecuador’s Amazon win a historic $9.5 billion pollution judgment against Chevron for the deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste onto their ancestral lands. Chevron discharged the waste into streams and rivers relied on by local residents for drinking water, bathing, and fishing. Thousands have either died of cancer or face a grave risk of death. After an 8-year trial in Ecuador where Chevron accepted jurisdiction, the country’s Supreme Court in 2013 found the oil company committed a mass industrial poisoning to save $3 per barrel. Chevron vowed never to pay the judgment and recently threatened the Indigenous peoples with a “lifetime of litigation” unless they drop the case. As part of a vicious retaliation campaign, Chevron has tried to demonize me by using at least 60 law firms, 2,000 lawyers, six public relations firms, and multiple fake news websites to smear my reputation. The company’s goal is to silence my advocacy, bankrupt my family, and intimidate other activists and environmental allies who do the critically important frontline work to save our planet.

Given the refusal of the Ecuadorian communities to capitulate, Chevron upped the ante in 2019 by targeting me in New York with the first corporate prosecution in the history of the United States. Not only was this corporate prosecution a threat to the rule of law, it was also a dangerous attack on the very fabric of our democracy. Pro-industry judge Lewis Kaplan (a former tobacco industry lawyer) appointed the Chevron law firm Seward & Kissel to "prosecute" me on a misdemeanor contempt charge after the regular federal prosecutor rejected the case. I had just appealed an unprecedented order from Kaplan that I turn over my computer and cell phone to Chevron – an order that would have forced me to violate attorney-client privilege and put the lives of my vulnerable clients at grave risk. The private prosecutor from the Chevron law firm (Rita Glavin) promptly had me locked up at home in August of 2019. After being found “guilty” in July 2021 in a non-jury trial by another judge with financial ties to Chevron, I served the maximum 6-month sentence, including 45 days in a federal prison after having been under house arrest for well over two years awaiting trial. In all, I served  993 days under house and prison for a charge where the maximum sentence under law was 180 days. I believe Kaplan's order violated the most basic sanctity of the attorney-client privilege and placed my vulnerable clients in the Amazon at severe risk of grave bodily harm or even death. I also believe the entire private prosecution is unconstitutional; five esteemed jurists from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2021 ruled my detention was arbitrary and violated international law.

The restrictions on my life have been devastating to me, my wife Laura, and son Matthew who is now 16.  I was confined to our small apartment with an ankle bracelet shackled to my leg 24/7. It never came off; I slept with it, showered with it, and ate with it. It even beeped and awakened us in the middle of the night when the battery ran low. This obviously was frightening on a personal level, but the ankle bracelet also represented a direct attack by the fossil fuel industry on the rule of law and the free speech rights of all advocates.

The irregularities in my private prosecution run deep. The judge overseeing Judge Kaplan's charges, Loretta Preska, was not assigned through random lot as required by court rules but was appointed by Judge Kaplan directly. This also was by design: Preska is a leader of the pro-corporate Federalist Society to which Chevron is a major funder. Preska denied me a jury of my peers, refused to let me present my defense, and prevented my lawyers from taking discovery related to the flagrant conflicts of interest involving Chevron and the private prosecutor. Preska also allowed the private prosecutor to orchestrate a contempt “trial” against me that was financed in large part by Chevron’s law firms. Given that she knew the outcome before hearing evidence, Preska was even reading the newspaper while witnesses were testifying. 

Dealing with the aftermath of this  horrific trial, my ongoing appeal, protecting my family, implementing the U.N. release order, and also advancing the underlying case against Chevron on behalf of the Ecuadorian communities entails considerable time and financial cost. The outcome of this battle is critical not just for me and others involved but also for the larger global struggle for environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and Free Speech. To meet these challenges, we need financial support urgently to cover significant legal and advocacy expenses. If we can demonstrate that a human rights lawyer can beat back a powerful corporation with grassroots funding from around the world, it will create even more possibilities for the environmental and corporate accountability movements to achieve its critical goals including putting the entire planet on a sustainable path to survival. 

I am deeply indebted to everyone for the support as we continue to build our campaign to ensure the Indigenous peoples of Ecuador are fully compensated for the harms done and that Chevron is held fully accountable for its misconduct.