 When it comes to the case against even Donziger, I have been hoping that someone in DC has been paying attention to this case and They're willing to speak up on his behalf because what is being done to him is absolutely Unjustifiable and if what is done to him is allowed to stand if the president of the United States doesn't intervene then this just paves the way for more prosecution more legalized Grasement the weaponization of the law against other individuals who choose to hold fossil fuel giants accountable When they ruin the planet now the Steven Donziger Twitter account tweeted out that nine lawmakers including AOC Demand Biden's DOJ take immediate action to release Steven Donziger now This is incredibly encouraging because members of the squad along with some other lawmakers have signed a joint statement to the Department of Justice and they're calling on Merrick Garland and the president more specifically To drop this case intervene and stop His sentence. I mean he's serving six months in jail He was found guilty of contempt after Chevron went after him and it's just it's unacceptable And it can't be allowed to stand especially if it is the case that you know The Biden administration cares about climate change and we know that they don't but if he wants to at least hold up Appearance that he cares then this is something that he has to address So let's get to the letter because the letter that they wrote was absolutely phenomenal So they say we write to you with an urgent request that your office take immediate action Regarding Steven are Donziger a US human rights lawyer who helped Ecuadorian victims of oil pollution obtain a historic judgment in Ecuadorian courts Against Chevron Mr. Donziger who has no prior criminal record has been a beloved and vaunted member of the environmental and human rights Communities for decades. Mr. Donziger has done nothing but uphold the highest professional ethics in representing and protecting his clients But has since been thrown in federal prison for petty contempt charges a first in United States history Mr. Donziger began serving a six-month sentence for petty contempt of court at the federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut on October 27th of 2021 Despite the many calls from the international legal community that his pre-trial detention for over 800 days was a violation of International law this case has shocked the worldwide community of environmental justice and human rights advocates and creates a distinct chilling effect On this type of advocacy going forward six members of Congress wrote to your office in April of 2021 requesting a thorough review of the circumstances of Mr. Donziger's prosecution in September of 2021 The same week Mr. Donziger was sentenced the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention wrote a scathing opinion Finding that Stephen Donziger's deprivation of liberty is a violation of international law and that the trial against him and the judges involved specifically Federal District Court judges Louis A Kaplan and Loretta Presca fail international fair trial standards Including the perception of impartiality of the courts The WGAD also concluded that the deprivation of liberty appears to be in retaliation to Mr. Donziger's work as a legal representative of indigenous communities in Ecuador that he should be freed immediately and that he is Do compensation for these violations now I will link you to the full statement down below in case you want to read the whole thing But they then go on to call out Joe Biden and they call him out by name and they specifically say that he needs to prove himself If he's serious about climate change they say the Biden administration must send a clear signal that it stands with communities harmed by pollution and Environmental destruction and the lawyers courageous enough to represent them and not the corporations that benefit from polluting water air and land of local People and finally they go on to say when the UN and international environmental and human rights communities repeatedly call for immediate action The Biden administration must not remain silent now The letter has been signed by Barbara Lee Corey Bush Jamal Bowman Iona Presley Ilhan Omar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rashida Tlaib Jesus Chui Garcia and Raul Grujava Now many of you already know the details about the Stephen Donziger case But it's worth revisiting since we're talking about it because this is truly Outrageous and every single person who cares about climate change has to be concerned with this because if Chevron is allowed to get away with this again It's gonna happen to more people and this is something that Stephen Donziger emphasizes as well So I want to share a really quick clip from democracy now This is just kind of a concise overview of the situation We turn now to what's been described as the Amazon's Chernobyl 1700 square miles of land in the Ecuador and Amazon Devastated by decades of reckless oil drilling 10 years ago Ecuador's Supreme Court ordered Chevron to pay 18 billion dollars for dumping over 70 billion Leaders of oil and toxic waste into the Amazon the ruling came in a lawsuit brought on behalf of 30,000 Amazonian indigenous people who'd been suffering since the mid 60s when Texaco began drilling on their ancestral land Chevron bought Texaco in 2000 Landmark ruling was seen as a major victory for the environment and corporate accountability But Chevron refused to pay or clean up the land Instead of cleaning up the Ecuador and Amazon Chevron has spent the past decade Waging an unprecedented legal battle to avoid paying for the environmental damage while also trying to take down the environmental lawyer Stephen Donziger who helped bring the landmark case With the help of dozens of law firms Chevron has ended Donziger's legal career He's been disbarred his bank accounts have been frozen. He's been forced to surrender his passport Steve Donziger has also been under house arrest for nearly 600 days after a federal judge Drafted a criminal complaint charges against him for refusing to turn over his cell phone and Computer and an unusual legal twist the judge appointed a private law firm with ties to Chevron to Prosecute Donziger after federal prosecutors Decline to bring charges. So I think it's obvious what's happening They are retaliating against him and the way that they're doing that is harassing him by weaponizing the legal system It's truly egregious, but I mean if you have enough resources and power You can do just that you can ruin someone's life and Because he held them accountable They don't like that they refuse to pay and now they're out for blood now They want him jailed now Unfortunately, they won because he was found guilty of contempt of court over the summer and he reported for prison in late October But before he reported for prison He said something really important in an interview with status coup and I wanted to share that with you What's what's happening to me as a new fossil fuel industry playbook? designed to Consolidate the power of this planet destroying industry over anyone who wants to hold it accountable lawyers advocates defenders activists You see this trend all over our country It's using the law as a weapon to intimidate people into silence to stop dissent And when it doesn't work to actually put people in jail and lock them up when they don't obey What the corporations the fossil fuel industry really wants so Our politicians are elected's need to stop this trend They need to pass laws to protect free speech and they need to prevent the use of civil RICO the racketeering law Against lawyers and activists who do this important frontline work to save the planet Our legal system is so controlled by corporate power right now It's gotten worse and worse ever since the inception of this case 28 years ago I've seen it with my own eyes I've experienced it and it's a damn outrage the United States of America a lawyer a successful human rights lawyer like myself ends up Two years locked up in his home with an ankle bracelet Just because Chevron is able to control a pocket of the New York judiciary through these two judges It's a damn outrage and I'm demanding to be released immediately and President Biden talks a big game about human rights you know freedom of You know first amendment those kind of things I haven't heard a damn thing from President Biden or anybody in his administration on your basic imprisonment. Yeah, this is a major Test for the Biden administration They are letting they purport to support climate issues the Green New Deal. Okay, you cannot Support climate issues to save the planet and let lawyers in your own country who do the frontline work get locked up like this Okay, the Justice Department the Biden Justice Department Merrick Garland They need to step in and take this prosecution back from the private Chevron law firm I am being prosecuted by a Chevron law firm Criminally they deprive me of my liberty I'm the only person ever in America deprived of his or her liberty on a misdemeanor Prior to trial and it's been almost two years Maximum sentence prior to me is 90 days of home confinement Biden needs to step up like this has to become a major issue for the Biden administration and we need more and more people to speak out Thank you. Appreciate it and he is absolutely right. This is a test for the Biden administration This is a test for Democrats in general and thus far. They're failing miserably So it's not too late. They can actually show us that they're somewhat serious about climate change By pardoning Steven Dunziger doing everything in their power to release him because what is happening to him is Totally inexcusable and more importantly if it happens to him, it's gonna happen to anyone else. I mean Greenpeace has been sued by I believe Chevron if not some other fossil fuel giant other Indigenous activists who are fighting against line three They're going to be the targets if you allow this type of behavior if you excuse it Then it's going to continue so unless the Biden administration puts its foot down and Writes this wrong. This is going to happen And a lot of people are going to be disincentivized and speaking out and fighting against these fossil fuel giants Which is necessary if we want to have a habitable planet for future generations So I mean the case is egregious, but it's really encouraging to see members of Congress speak up I wish it was more than nine. I mean, honestly, there's a lot more lawmakers who shouldn't theory be supporting This joint resolution and perhaps by the time that you see this video more will have signed on But I mean Ro Khanna from Ila Jaya Paul Katie Porter There's a lot others who should be supporting this who should be co-signing this joint statement But for now, it's nice to see members of the squad and other leftist lawmakers get the ball rolling because this is incredibly important